The Kogi State Government has confirmed the release of students who were abducted by gunmen from the campus of Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTECH) Osara.
The students were among the victims kidnapped on May 9th, 2024. The security agencies who swung into action had rescued 21, after which two of the remaining ten students held hostage were murdered.
The state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, on Sunday confirmed the release of the remaining eight hostages.
“The Governor has directed full support towards the recovery of the students and their parents, while modalities are being put in place to make Kogi safer for all,” he said.
The government expressed appreciation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazak of Kwara state, and Heads of the Security Agencies for their efforts.
“Now that the remaining students have been rescued, our administration will continue the drive to recalibrate our security architecture and pay an uncompromising attention to the Safe School Initiative. As the State with the lowest out of school children in the North, we have put structures in place to keep our schools safe to ensure every child is not deprived of his or her right to education. Kogi has domesticated the Child Rights Act and we will defend the right of our children to quality education. In Kogi State, education is free up to the Secondary School level. We also pay the registration fees for our students to write all internal and external examinations with a budgetary allocation that is way above the UNESCO benchmark for education. We do all of these to educate our children and make them responsible contributors to the economy of Nigeria.
“We urge our citizens to always volunteer intelligence to security agencies to enable them to prevent crime. This is safer, cheaper and better for us all.
“All of us must come together to defeat banditry, kidnapping and any form of criminality in our society.”
