Several students at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), who were reportedly returning to the campus to resume their academic pursuits, have been kidnapped by gunmen.
The event is said to have occurred on Sunday at 4 p.m. along Nsukka-Opi Road in the hamlet of Ekwegbe, Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area, Enugu State, Nigeria.
It was learned that since Saturday night, the gunmen have been kidnapping people who are traveling along the road. On Tuesday, according to sources, there were still attacks on the roads.
After the Academic Staff Union of Universities‘ strike action was suspended, many public universities restarted their academic programs (ASUU).
Like other colleges, UNN had made the announcement about the start of classes by Monday, which led a lot of students to start heading to campus. Along with the university students, the gunmen also kidnapped some other travelers.
@KamsiSalita, a user on Twitter, tweeted about the incident.
“The cab guy that dropped my friend saw two cars get stopped with gunshots along Nsukka Expressway on his way back (from School). He also left his car to go hide somewhere,” she tweeted.
She expressed amazement that the kidnapping took place on the route despite the presence of over six security checkpoints.
“They (gunmen) stopped two cars and kidnapped everyone inside. This is beyond terrible,” she lamented.
Other sources, however, said about six vehicles were flagged down by the gunmen in the area who kidnapped all the occupants of the vehicles, including university students.
“Students were kidnapped on their way back to UNN yesterday on the Enugu-Nsukka Road & it’s not all over the major news outlets. What’s going on?” another Twitter user, @inc051, posted on the microblogging website on Tuesday.
In the meantime, Enugu State police have confirmed the incident and announced that they have sent “operational and intelligence resources” to the area to guarantee proper protection on the route as well as to free the victims who have been kidnapped.
The number of victims who have been kidnapped has not yet been determined, according to Daniel Ndukwe, the state’s police spokesperson, who made this announcement in a statement on Wednesday.
Following learning of the kidnapping, the state’s police commissioner, Ahmed Ammani, ordered the deployment of the agents, according to Ndukwe.
On October 20, according to Ndukwe, the police detained three alleged kidnappers in Ugwuaji, a hamlet in the state’s Enugu South Local Government Area.
He identified the detained individuals as Ogochukwu Nweke, 17, Chidi Jobbison, 24, and Emmanuel Ogbu, 25.