*Warns: Don’t play politics with our lives
By Victor AhiumaYoung & Adeola Badru
IBADAN—AFTER spending 25 days in captivity, the abducted Principal of Community High School, Esiele, in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, Mrs Rachael Folawe Alamu, has appeared in a viral video from captivity, begging Nigerians and government authorities to secure their release.
She, however, dismissed reports that their kidnappers are demanding a N1 billion ransom, weapons or the imposition of Sharia law in Nigeria.
The pupils and teachers of the Baptist Nursery and Primary School (Yawota), Community Grammar School (Esiele), and L.A. Primary School were kidnapped on May 15 during a fatal attack by bandits.
One of the teachers was also killed in captivity by the terrorists.
In the video, which surfaced online, on Monday, the school principal said she was compelled to speak out after learning that what she described as false information about the demands of her abductors was being circulated in sections of the media, 25 days after she was kidnapped.
Abductors’ demand
She also disclosed that she and other captives had been shown media reports alleging that their abductors were demanding a huge ransom payment and the establishment of Sharia law in the country.
Her words: “Please, I have come to make some clarifications. Today makes it the 25th day that we have been in this place and it seems that some people are making our problems complicated already.
“We were shown some print media where it was stated that the people who abducted us requested the release of some people.
“That they requested N1 billion, that they requested that Sharia be entrenched in the country. These are not true. They are just trying to create problems for us.
“We have been here, and we have not been forced to worship in an Islamic way. We have been left alone. They have not troubled us concerning that. They are not asking for Sharia law. They are not asking for money.
“The single thing they are asking for is the release of some of their people. I don’t know why they are peddling this rumour to make it complicated for us.”
While she urged Nigerians and government officials not to play politics with their lives, Mrs Alamu warned that such may jeopardise efforts aimed at securing the freedom of those being held captive.
She said: “Please, we are just begging you. Don’t play politics with our lives. Nigerians, please help us to circulate this. Let it go viral.
“They are not asking for Sharia law. It is not true. They are not asking for weapons. They are not asking for money.
“All they want is the release of some people, and the government will negotiate with them and know those that they will release for them. I don’t know why they are playing politics with our lives.”
In an emotional appeal, the principal urged Nigerians to help amplify her message and prevent what she alleged were attempts to misrepresent the situation to the international community.
“Please, Nigerians, our lives are in your hands. Help us make this go viral. Don’t let the government deceive the whole world.
“They are not asking for Sharia. They are not asking for money. They are not asking for weapons. All they want is the release of some of their people.”
NLC, TUC threaten nationwide action over insecurity
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, yesterday, threatened a nationwide industrial action if urgent steps are not taken to halt the escalating wave of insecurity across the country.
The two labour centres handed down the warning during a joint press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing 114th International Labour Conference, ILC, in Geneva, Switzerland, where they lamented the worsening bloodshed and abduction of innocent citizens.
Addressing Nigerian journalists, NLC President and TUC Deputy President, Messrs Joe Ajaero and Oyibo Jimoh, said: “In Nigeria, the crisis of insecurity has reached such frightening dimensions that workers now risk their very lives simply to report to duty. Communities are being overrun, farmers chased from their fields, teachers abducted from their schools and beheaded, and health workers attacked in their clinics. This is not a marginal issue; it is the central threat to decent work.
“No amount of policy rhetoric can create employment or protect labour rights where the most basic human rights, the right to live, are not guaranteed.
“If this continues unchecked, we may have no choice but to advise our members to stay at home, not as a strike, but as a desperate act of survival. The Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, has kick-started it; the NLC and TUC will be compelled to escalate it if nothing is done immediately, as we had said during the last May Day.
“We will remind the government again of the need to hold a dialogue on the crisis of survival in our nation.”
Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the NLC and TUC said: “We urge the politicians to reflect on the security of the lives they want to rule. Is canvassing for votes in the midst of the huge loss of lives and properties morally acceptable?
“In any case, the trade union movement will not be voting fodder for any political party that visits us only at election time. We are finalising a Charter of Demands, and we will only support candidates and parties that commit concretely to workers’ rights, to security, to functional education, to public healthcare, and to ending the haemorrhaging of national wealth through illicit financial flows.
“Those who have actively abused workers and undermined trade union freedoms will face our organised rejection.”
