Suspected terrorists have abducted about 18 students of Gamji College of Health Technology, Sokoto State, who were travelling to their home towns in Oke-Ogun, particularly Igboho in Oyo State.
The incident reportedly occurred within the past 48 hours along the route to Oyo State, with the driver of the chartered bus allegedly killed by the assailants.
A youth leader from Oke-Ogun, who confirmed the incident to Chronicles Reporters during an interview, clarified that the victims were not students of Usmanu Danfodiyo University (UDUS), as had earlier been reported.
According to the youth leader, the students were travelling in a chartered bus from Gamji College of Health Technology in Sokoto to Oke-Ogun, with Igboho identified as their destination.
He said community members from Oke-Ogun had confirmed the incident and that the abducted students were reportedly taken towards the Mokwa axis.
“Sadly, the unfortunate incident is being confirmed by me because I’m from Oke-Ogun too, and our people have confirmed that it truly happened in the past 48 hours.
“But it wasn’t a bus conveying UDUS students. It was a bus taking students from Gamji College of Health Technology, Sokoto, to Oke-Ogun, Igboho to be precise.
“The driver was killed and all the students were kidnapped. They have reached the Mokwa side,” the youth leader said.
Other sources familiar with the incident told Chronicles Reporters that the number of abducted students could be as many as 18.
The sources said the students were travelling in a chartered bus reportedly arranged by their school to convey them to their respective home towns in Oyo State.
They were reportedly all taken away by the assailants after the driver was killed.
The driver’s remains were reportedly buried on Saturday after he was killed during the attack.
The reported movement of the abducted students towards the Mokwa axis has heightened concerns among their relatives, community members and residents, particularly because the area and adjoining routes have previously witnessed attacks and abductions.
The incident has also renewed concerns over the safety of students and other travellers moving between northern and southern parts of Nigeria, amid persistent attacks on major highways.
The latest abduction comes barely days after 19 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members were reportedly kidnapped by gunmen in Imo State.
The corps members were travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states when gunmen reportedly attacked their two buses along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Umunoha, Imo State, on Thursday.
Isiah Akpan, the Managing Director of Uko Akwa Ibom Motors Nigeria Limited, said the abductors demanded N50 million for each victim.
The demand reportedly amounted to N950 million for the 19 corps members.
Reacting to the abduction in a post on X, human rights activist and African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore said the incident reinforced his longstanding position that the NYSC had “outlived its usefulness in its present form.”
Sowore argued that young Nigerians should not be compelled to travel to distant parts of the country for national service when the government cannot guarantee their safety.
“You cannot force young Nigerians to ‘serve their fatherland’ when the same country cannot guarantee their safety while they travel to their places of service,” he wrote.
The AAC presidential candidate called for the immediate suspension of the scheme and its eventual abolition, proposing that corps members should, in the interim, be allowed to serve within their states of origin.
The two incidents have intensified concerns over the security of interstate highways and the vulnerability of students, corps members and other travellers to kidnapping and other violent attacks.
Families of the abducted Gamji College students are now awaiting information on efforts to locate the victims and secure their release, as concerns grow over their reported movement towards the Mokwa axis.