A group of eighteen passengers has been safely rescued after spending four days in the hands of kidnappers.
The victims, who were abducted on Wednesday from a Benue Links vehicle on the Taraku–Otukpo Road, were released early Sunday following persistent security operations.
Governor Hyacinth Alia welcomed the group, which included eight students traveling for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), at the Government House in Makurdi. The survivors shared harrowing accounts of their time in captivity, citing physical abuse, forced displacement through the forest, and extreme hunger.
Gbenda Daniels, an 18-year-old victim, reported that the attackers stole his money and denied the group food, leaving them to survive on unsanitary water. Another student, Ngukulan Iornav, recalled being beaten while being fed only garri and salt.
Medical student Orih Raphael Sylvester described a chaotic ordeal where the group was frequently moved to evade detection, subjected to physical violence, and coerced into calling relatives for ransom payments.
The captors reportedly demanded 10 million Naira for each individual. A relative, Ochadgwuba Alexander, confirmed that he provided a ransom payment before coordinating with the military to secure their extraction at Okete village on Sunday morning.
Governor Alia has expressed his intent to lobby the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to accommodate the students who missed their exams. He also pledged that the state government would increase security presence in dangerous zones to prevent further incidents.
