By Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN

Constitutional Lawyer and human right activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN on Tuesday queried if Nigeria still have a government in place.

Ozekhome was reacting to the news of the demand of 100million ransom by the kidnappers before the release of other Kaduna Train kidnapped victims.

Decrying the ugly development, the Constitutional lawyer in a tweet said “I was quite excited when I heard about the release of 7 Kaduna train kidnapped victims.

“But, hearing that 800m was paid as ransom and that the bandits are demanding 100m each for the remaining victims blead my heart. Do we still have a govt in place? Tell me,” he queried.

Recall that the released victims were among the dozens of passengers abducted on March 28 by gunmen who derailed the moving train.

No organisation has yet claimed responsibility for the attack but security sources and researchers attributed the daring attack to remnants of Boko Haram working in cahoots with members of the Darul Salam, another group mostly populated by Fulani youths dislodged from Niger and Nasarawa States at different times.

Some however attributed the attack to the Islamic State West Africa (ISWAP) though, atypical of the group, they have not publicly laid claim to it.

The release of the seven victims came amid heightened fears that the terrorists would kill all those in their custody over the alleged failure of the federal government to respond to their demands.

It was gathered on Tuesday that the captors of the train passengers had sent an audio clip to victims’ families threatening to kill the captives if the families were unwilling to strike a deal with them.

Newsmen gathered that families of each of the six Nigerian victims paid N100 million while the captors pegged the ransom for the Pakistani at N200 million which was also paid.