Principal of the school, Abubakar Hassan, said the bandits had contacted him and asked for N300 million but that the ransom had been reduced to N110 million.
One of the parents of the pupils of the Salihu Tanko Islamiyyan School, Tegina in the Rafi Local Government Area of the state where over 150 pupils were abducted last Sunday, has died.
The principal of the school, Abubakar Hassan, disclosed this on Wednesday.
SaharaReporters had reported how gunmen on May 30 stormed the police station in the town and went round shooting sporadically into the air to scare residents before breaking into the private school where they abducted children attending Islamic lectures.
The school, which consists of nursery and primary arms, also hosts Islamiyya students in the evening and at weekends.
Tegina is the hometown of the Local government chairperson, Isma’il Moddibo. It is in the same local government area with Kagara where bandits earlier this year abducted many students but later released them after negotiation with the state government.
Speaking on Wednesday on Arise TV, principal of the school, Abubakar Hassan, said the bandits had contacted him and asked for N300 million but that the ransom had been reduced to N110 million.
Abubakar said when the bandits contacted him, he appealed to them to allow him to speak with one of the three teachers who were abducted alongside the students, some of whom were about four years old, and the teacher told him that the bandits have started beating them and have refused to give them food.
"What pains me most is that I pleaded with the bandits to allow me talk to one of the teachers. When I spoke to her, she was complaining to me that they have started beating them and that there was no food, water. She said some of the kids cannot move their legs.
“We are in a bad situation here. One of the kid's parents is now dead because of the incident. She has only one child and when she heard what happened, she fainted. They took her to the hospital where she died yesterday evening,'' he said.
Abubakar who sounded disappointed said the state government had yet to contact him since the abduction happened.
''The government agencies have not intervened. The SSG (Secretary to the State Government) spoke to us through his wife. The wife called me and she gave the phone to him and we were able to talk. During the conversation, he promised that they are going to intervene and up till now as I am talking to you, none of them came to sympathise with us," he said.