Fear rules among parents of the abducted students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Mando, Kaduna State worsened on Wednesday as the abductees spent two weeks in kidnappers’ custody.

The scared, terrified and anxious parents had met some prominent Nigerians so assist them in prevailing on the state Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to step up efforts to rescue the students.

One of the parents (name withheld) stated that they were bothered by the health of their children some of whom sustained injuries when they were abducted on March 11.

He said the parents had not heard anything from government despite the 48 hours ultimatum they gave for the rescue of the students.

The parents had on Monday protested and given Kaduna State and the Federal Government 48 hours to rescue the students.

On Wednesday, the fears of the parents worsened as the students were neither released nor government briefed them on the latest development on the abductees.

“Our children barely dressed up when they were whisked away by the bandits. Some of them were injured when troops tried to stop the bandits from taking them away,” one of the parents stated.

Another parent said they were concerned that the students were staying too long with the bandits. He recalled that none of recently kidnapped students of other schools stayed this long with kidnappers.

He said abducted students of Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State, who were kidnapped on February 17, were released on February 27.

The parent added that 279 students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Jangede, Zamfara State, were released on March 2 after their February 26 abduction.

“We are becoming more apprehensive. We did not envisage that the abductors would keep them this long. It’s now almost two weeks they were taken away. Kagara and Jangede students were not kept as long as this,” he stated.

One of the parents said they had earlier planned a continued protest over the matter after the expiration of the 48 hour ultimatum.

During Monday’s protest, Mr Friday Sani, who spoke on behalf of the parents, said, “We are by this press conference demanding that the government rescue our children by all means and within 48 hours so that the process of their rehabilitation can commence because the longer they stay in captivity the worse the situation will be.”

However, speaking to one of our correspondents, a parent said, “The plan after the 48-hour-ultimatum given to both the state and federal governments was to resume the protest until our children are release by the bandits.

“But after we met with some prominent citizens, we were advised to shelve the planned protest for now and those we met so far, whom I don’t want to name, promised to meet the governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, and talk to him on the matter.

“We are pleading with the authorities concerned to see to the plights of our children. They should remember the conditions of these students when they were abducted by the bandits. Almost all of them were naked when the bandits stormed the school. We want those in power to put themselves in our shoes.”

But the state government on Wednesday remained mute over the ultimatum.

The state Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Mr Samuel Aruwan , could not be reached on the telephone.

Also, as of the time of filing this report, he had yet to respond to a text message sent to his telephone.

Recall that the bandits, on March 13 released a viral video where the students were seen crying and appealing to government to pay the N500m demanded by the bandits as ransom for their release.