by Nurat Uthman
About 20 medical students have been kidnapped in Benue State, the police authorities said on Friday
The victims were on their way to Enugu State, passing through the Otukpo Local Government area in Benue before they encountered bandits.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the Benue State Police Command, Sewuese Anene, the victims were en route to Enugu for a programme when they ran into the kidnappers around Otukpo.
The students were said to be travelling in a convoy of two buses and were coming from the northern part of the country when they ran into the ambush on Thursday evening at about 5:30 pm.
“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.
