About 18 students of Gamji College of Health Technology, Sokoto State, travelling to their hometowns in Oyo State, have reportedly been abducted by suspected terrorists, with the driver of their chartered bus allegedly killed during the attack.
The incident reportedly occurred within the past 48 hours along the route to Oyo State, according to a report by SaharaReporters, which said the students were travelling to the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State, particularly Igboho.
A youth leader from Oke-Ogun who confirmed the incident to the publication 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 arranged by Gamji College of Health Technology in Sokoto to convey them to their respective hometowns in Oyo State.
“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.
He further disclosed that the driver was killed at the scene, adding that his remains were buried on Saturday.
Other sources familiar with the incident told SaharaReporters that as many as 18 students could have been taken by the assailants.
The sources said the students were travelling in a chartered bus arranged by their institution when the attackers reportedly intercepted the vehicle, killed the driver and took the students away.
The reported movement of the victims towards the Mokwa axis has heightened concerns among their relatives and residents, particularly because the area has previously witnessed attacks and abductions along major highways.
The development comes days after 19 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members were reportedly abducted by gunmen in Imo State while travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The prospective corps members were reportedly travelling in two buses when they were attacked along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in the Umunoha area of Imo State on Thursday.
Isiah Akpan, Managing Director of Uko Akwa Ibom Motors Nigeria Limited, said the abductors had demanded N50 million for each victim, amounting to N950 million for the 19 victims.
Reacting to the development 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.”
“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.
Sowore called for the immediate suspension and eventual abolition of the scheme, proposing that, in the interim, corps members should be allowed to serve within their states of origin.
