Suspected bandits have allegedly kidnapped 18 students from Oyo State travelling from Sokoto State to their hometowns in Oke-Ogun, after attacking their chartered bus and killing the driver, sources familiar with the incident have said.
The students, who were travelling from Gamji College of Health Technology, Sokoto, were reportedly intercepted by the assailants along the route to Oyo State within the past 48 hours.
The abductors were said to have moved the victims towards the Mokwa axis.
The development has raised fresh concerns over the safety of students travelling between states, particularly along routes where commuters have repeatedly faced attacks and abductions.
An Oke-Ogun youth leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident, clarifying that the victims were students of Gamji College of Health Technology and not Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, as earlier reported.
“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,” the youth leader said.
He explained that the students were travelling in a chartered bus from their institution in Sokoto to Oke-Ogun, with Igboho as their specific destination.
“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,” he said.
According to him, the attackers killed the driver before taking the students away.
“The driver was killed and all the students were kidnapped. They have reached the Mokwa side,” he said.
The youth leader further disclosed that the driver’s remains had been buried.
“The driver was killed at the scene and his remains were buried on Saturday,” he said.
Other sources familiar with the incident said the number of abducted students could be as many as 18.
The sources said the students were travelling in a chartered bus arranged by their school to convey them to their respective hometowns in Oyo State when the vehicle was intercepted by the assailants.
They were reportedly taken away by the attackers after the driver was killed.
The latest incident comes barely days after 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps members were reportedly abducted by gunmen in Imo State.
The victims 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, Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State.
Efforts to obtain further information from the Oyo State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Olayinka Ayanlade, proved abortive, as he had not responded to messages sent to him as of the time of filing this report.
