Approximately 20 medical students have been kidnapped in Benue State, police authorities reported on Friday.
The victims were traveling to Enugu State and passing through the Otukpo Local Government Area in Benue when they encountered bandits.
According to Sewuese Anene, the Public Relations Officer of the Benue State Police Command, the students were en route to Enugu for a program when they were ambushed around Otukpo.
The students were traveling in a convoy of two buses and were coming from the northern part of the country when the ambush occurred on Thursday evening around 5:30 p.m.
“Yes, it happened yesterday, Thursday evening around 5:30 pm. The Medical students were said to be travelling from Jos axis and were heading to Enugu in two buses, for a programme when they were kidnapped around the Otukpo area,” he said.
“Though I cannot tell which university they were from, they were medical students in transit. I am yet to receive full details of the incident but I can assure you that investigation into the matter has already commenced.”
In the past six years, the federal highway from Otukpo through Ugbokolo in the Okpokwu Local Government Area down to Odoba and Otukpa in Ogbadibu Local Government Area has become one of Nigeria’s dangerous roads to travel due to the notorious kidnap syndicate controlling the thick forests and vast ungoverned spaces.
About six weeks ago, the management team of the Benue State Polytechnic Ugbokolo, led by the Rector was kidnapped on that axis. This was aside from several other victims including Catholic priests and many other kidnapping cases of motorists with little or no effort to tame the menace.