The leader of the bandit group who identified himself as Sani Idris Jalingo, popularly known as Baleri, said in an interview with Voice of America (VOA) Hausa, which was monitored by our correspondent Monday morning that 17 students were present, in his custody including 15 females and two males amongst them, a grandchild of the late 18th Emir of Zazzau, Shehu Idris whom he identified as Hamza.

Daily Trust reports that bandits had breached the security of Greenfield, a private university at Kasarami, along the Kaduna-Abuja highway on April 20 and abducted about 22 students and staff, while killing a staff of the institution during the operation.

The bandits had demanded a ransom of N800 million before they killed five students within a week of the abduction and threatened to kill more.

Speaking on the N55 million, Boleri said they had used the money in feeding the students with garri (cassava granules).

“We want to show that the Nigerian Government has failed that is why we killed the students,” he said.

Asked if he saw himself as a terrorist, Baleri laughed and said: “I’m not but a food seeker. If they fail to bring N100 million and 10 brand new Honda motorcycles known as Boko Haram by Tuesday (today), I can assure you they will use trucks to evacuate the bodies of the remaining students.”

Two of the abducted students who spoke during the interview also appealed to the government and their parents to take the threat seriously.

Hamza, the alleged grandson of the late emir, called on the government to negotiate with their captives.

“They mean what they say because they have already killed some of us,” he said.

Similarly, Abigail Usman also pleaded with the government to send the money so that they will regain their freedom.

She said the five students killed were taken in their presence to where they were murdered. “If they don’t get the money, they will kill us all,” she pleaded.

Daily Trust reports that Governor Nasir El-Rufai is adamant that he will not negotiate or pay ransom to bandits as money given to them will be used in further arming them. El-Rufai has advocated for the total obliteration of all bandits.

Kaduna State Government kept mum over the threat by the abductors of the Greenfield students to kill the remaining 17 students today.

Several calls to the State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, were not picked and he didn’t also reply to a text message sent to him seeking reaction to the threat as at the time of filing this report.