NINE students abducted along the East-West Road in Ughelli, Delta State, have regained freedom.
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, Bright Edafe, disclosed this via his official X handle late on Monday, April 1.
“All nine victims have regained their freedom,” he noted.
The students were travelling along the road at the time of their abduction, and according to Edafe, they were suspected to be returning from their school in Calabar, Cross River State, in the late hours of Friday, March 29.
The incident occurred after about three students of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) were abducted from one of the hostels on campus.
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 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, about 287 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.
Over two weeks later, the Defence Headquarters announced that the abducted children were not 287, but 137 and confirmed they had been rescued.
Abduction of schoolchildren became rampant in Nigeria, especially in the North, after nearly 300 students were abducted by terrorists from a school in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014.
Since then, students have been abducted from various institutions of learning, including primary, secondary and tertiary schools.
Some tertiary institutions where students have been whisked away are Federal University Dutsin Ma, Katsina state, Federal University, Gusau, in Zamfara state, and the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Afaka, Kaduna state.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.