KIDNAPPERS of some students the University of Jos (UNIJOS), who were recently abducted, have ordered the victims to raise N50 million through social media campaigns.
According to a report by the Foundation of Investigative Journalism, FIJ, the kidnappers granted the students access to their phones to enable them interact with those who can help them raise the ransom.
The figure was also confirmed by The ICIR, in a post on X/Twitter via the account of one of the captives, Kingsley Aondona.
He also disclosed that the kidnappers have set a deadline for the students to raise the amount, threatening to start killing them today, Saturday, if their demands are not met.
“We were kidnapped on our way to Enugu for a convention. They are requesting N50 million for 20 of us medical students. Please, help us and we haven’t eaten for two days. They said they would start killing us tomorrow,” the handler tweeted.
The ICIR reported that the students who are from the University of Maiduguri and the University of Jos were travelling to Enugu for the annual meeting of the Federation of Catholic Medical and Dental Students (FECAMDS) when they were ambushed by gunmen around 5:30 p.m. in the Otukpo area of Benue State.
Confirming the incident to The ICIR in a chat on Friday, August 16, the spokesperson for the Benue State Police command, Catherine Anene, said an investigation had been launched into the incident.
The president of the Benue Medical Student Association, Samuel Oche, confirmed that he spoke with one of the kidnapped students on Friday.
“As of yesterday, we still had access to them. We tried to know if we could still contact them, and one of them confirmed to me on call that the kidnappers were asking for N50 million collectively,” Oche told FIJ on Saturday.
“Some of the abductees were chatting with us right from in there. These are some of the hints that we have that are supposed to enable security agencies to make use of to track these people and get them out for us rather than donating money,” he added.
Benue has been one of the epicentres of conflict and insecurity in Nigeria in recent years.
While armed herdsmen are on the rampage in one part of the state, local bandits are wreaking havoc in the other.
Students abductions drag
Abduction of students has become a source of concern in Nigeria, where the number of out-of-school children is very high.
In 2023, The ICIR reported that Nigeria had 19.7 million out-of-school children and was the country globally with the third highest number of children deprived of education according to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 2020 Model Estimates.
On Thursday, March 7, 137 students and their principal were reportedly abducted by terrorists from the LEA Primary School in Kuriga, a community within the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
The incident generated public outcry, with several leaders, including President Bola Tinubu, calling for their immediate release.
Abduction of schoolchildren became common in Nigeria, especially in the North, where nearly 300 students were abducted by terrorists from a school in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014.
Findings by The ICIR show that bandits and terrorist groups have disrupted the Nigerian education system, kidnapping over 1,000 students in the last decade.
Within the past three administrations, the abduction of school children has generated millions in ransom for kidnappers, leaving citizens with no hope of a possible end to the menace.
Among the tertiary institutions where students have been whisked away are: the Federal University Dutsin Ma, Katsina State, in 2023; Federal University, Gusau, in Zamfara State, in 2022, and the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, in 2021.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M