According to Anaedoonline.ng, seven students from Abia State University Uturu (ABSU) have been kidnapped by an unknown bunch of gunmen.
The event occurred on Thursday, March 31 along the Okigwe/Uturu route, when the bus they boarded was attacked.
Mejeh Emmanuel and Divine Nwachukwu, both medical students, have been named as two of the victims, according to the university’s Public Relations Officer (PRO).
Unknown Gunmen Kidnap ABSU Students, Motorists, One Confirmed Dead
On Sunday, the spokesperson for the Abia Police Command, Geoffrey Ogbonna, confirmed the event, claiming that seven students had been abducted and that they had not been released.
He explained that joint efforts of two state police commands were needed because the kidnap incident occurred at the axis of the road located in Imo State while the victims are students of Abia State-owned institution.
“Abia State and Imo State commands are on the matter. The students are from Abia and from what I heard, they are about seven in number,” he said.
Speaking on the development, the Vice-chancellor of ABSU, Prof, Onyemachi Ogbulu, confirmed that the kidnappers have already made contact and requested ransom before the students could be freed.
According to him, the abductors had contacted him on Friday and demanded N10 million for each of the students, but 24 hours later they reduced the ransom to N2 million each.
Ikpeazu Partners With Imo Security Operatives To Ensure Prompt Release Of Kidnapped ABSU Student
The ABSU VC expressed his frustration with the security agencies, saying that the institution is tired of hearing about frequent kidnappings of its students in spite of the heavy presence of security agents along the road leading to the campus.
“There are more than six security checkpoints between Okigwe and ABSU, yet, every now and then, this happens and nobody has been arrested,” he lamented.
He noted that it is hard to understand why the kidnapping of students should persist “in spite of the presence of all the security agents, the army, the police, the mobile Police.”
Prof Ogbulu said that students had been warned by the school authorities “to stop going about in the night” but to no avail.
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