One of the Abuja-Kaduna train passengers, Sidi Aminu Sharif, who was released from captivity after more than four months, has said bullets fired into his stomach are still there.
The victim, who was one of the five passengers released on Tuesday, had been shot while still being held captive, raising questions about his health.
The victim claimed that attempts to extract the bullets were unsuccessful when speaking in the Kaduna office of Tukur Mamu, a Kaduna-based publisher who helped organise the release of some of the train passengers.
He expressed confidence that, now that he had been released, he would receive appropriate medical care.
“I am one of the passengers of the train attacked in Kaduna on its way from Abuja. I could remember how it happened when the train was conveying us to Kaduna. As we were sitting on the train, I could remember I praying when we heard a loud sound… I was shot on my stomach in captivity. A doctor tried to remove it but he could not. He used my clothes to manage the blood which flowed to my knees.
“He used gloves and search my stomach to pull out the bullet but couldn’t find, he later used scissors but still couldn’t find any bullet in my stomach. Up till now, we didn’t see the bullet. I don’t know if it’s still in my stomach, I hope now that we are free, I can go to the hospital for x-ray if the bullet can be found.”
Although it is yet unknown if a ransom was paid for the passengers’ release, reports claim that those who were freed in July paid N100 million each, with the Pakistani among them paying N200 million.
After their leaders, who they planned to exchange the victims for, were released during the Kuje prison raid, the terrorists, who had originally requested prison swaps as a condition for releasing some of the passengers, demanded a hefty ransom.