No fewer than nine students of the Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTECH) Osara, Okene, Kogi State, are currently with terrorists who abducted them during an invasion into their school 12 days ago.
A student of the university confirmed on Wednesday, saying that the school management and the state government had relented in their efforts to rescue the remaining students.
“Some students were rescued last week but we still have like nine of them with the terrorists. And it is like everybody has moved on. The efforts put to rescue the first set of people have reduced and this is causing a lot of fear to the parents of the remaining students,” the source said.
Some bandits had abducted the students who were reading for their upcoming examination some weeks ago.
The bandits reportedly came in through the bush, went into three lecture halls, and began to shoot into the air to scare the students.
The Kogi State Police Command, disclosed that 14 of the abducted students of the University were rescued last week.
The Spokesman, Williams Aya, stated that the total number of students abducted during the Thursday invasion were 24 but 14 were rescued, remaining 10 of them.
“One of the rescued female students revealed that there were about 24 students kidnapped on that fateful day, others were herded away during the exchange of gunfire with the security team,” Aya had said.
He said joint security teams, comprising the Police Mobile Force (PMF), Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU), Quick Response Unit, Intelligence Unit as well as personnel of 12 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Lokoja, DSS, hunters and local vigilantes carried out the operation.
Aya further explained that the combined efforts of the security teams led to the rescue of the students after a shootout with the abductors, forcing them to abandon some of the victims and flee.
“The security operatives are currently conducting thorough searches in the bushes to ensure the safe rescue of the remaining victims, apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” he said.
