Fatimah Otunsanya
The combined security operatives have rescued the remaining 13 passengers who were abducted Wednesday night.
The state’s Commissioner of Police, Ifeanyi Emenari, confirmed this to our correspondent early Sunday morning in a text message.
The CP said that the rescued kidnap victims will be brought to Makurdi anytime from now.
”Yes we’re planning a news conference this morning when they arrive Makurdi. Good morning please,” CP Emenari said in a terse message to our correspondent.
Gunmen had on Wednesday night intercepted the state owned transport vehicle, Benue Links and abducted some of the passengers among them young men and women who were to sit for the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in Otukpo.
The CP had on Friday told our correspondent that five of the victims had been rescued leaving 13 in kidnappers den.
Though, the authority of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board had in a statement issued on Saturday denied any of its candidates victims of fulani abduction.
But a relative who spoke to journalists in Makurdi late Saturday had dismissed the JAMB statement.
A relative of one of the victims who requested anonymity, said JAMB’s statement was “disturbing and dismissive,” stressing that a large number of passengers on the bus were travelling to sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
“My nephew was on that bus, and he was heading to Otukpo for his JAMB examination. In fact, most of the passengers were candidates. Only a few were not going for the exam. That explains why they hurried to travel that evening, they had exams scheduled for early the next day.”
