A group of candidates for the ongoing JAMB examination were abducted by gunmen along the Makurdi-Otukpo road in Benue State on Wednesday night. The victims were traveling in a Benue Links bus when the vehicle was attacked around 8 pm.
An anonymous source stated the bus was carrying approximately 18 passengers, most of whom were taken into the bush. The passengers were primarily young people heading to Otukpo for the UTME scheduled for Thursday. The driver and one passenger managed to escape the assault.
Benue State Commissioner of Police, Ifeanyi Emenari, confirmed the incident but provided a different figure, stating 14 passengers were abducted with one escapee. Emenari stated he was in Otukpo personally leading the rescue operation. He noted an investigation has been launched, particularly into why the driver was traveling at night against Benue Links policy.
The Chairman of Otukpo Local Government Area, Maxwell Ogiri, also confirmed the abduction. He reported that security operatives had been deployed into the forest following a security meeting to rescue the victims, whom he identified as young boys and girls coming for their JAMB exam.
This attack directly targets Nigeria's future by preying on students at their most vulnerable. The conflicting figures between the police account and the anonymous source's testimony point to the initial chaos that often surrounds such incidents and the difficulty in establishing immediate facts.
For ordinary Nigerian families, this transforms the simple act of traveling to an exam into a life-threatening gamble. The parents of these JAMB candidates now face unimaginable anguish, their children's educational aspirations shattered by a violent interruption.
This event is not isolated but part of a persistent pattern of brazen criminality on key transport routes. It exposes a failure to secure corridors that are vital for education and commerce, effectively holding the state's social and economic mobility hostage.
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