Contrary to what the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) earlier said that the kidnapped students in Benue were not its candidates, Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue Stats has countered the claim, saying that eight out of the 15 kidnapped victims were on their way to write the examination.
- +Alia counters JAMB, says eight eight kidnapped victims were UTME candidates
The governor, who made this known while receiving the rescued kidnapped victims of the Wednesday April at Government House Makurdi, appealed to JAMB to set a new date to enable the eight kidnapped candidates sit for the examination.
The governor, who made this known while receiving the rescued kidnapped victims of the Wednesday April at Government House Makurdi, appealed to JAMB to set a new date to enable the eight kidnapped candidates sit for the examination.
Governor Alia also directed the Commissioner of Health and Human Services to take all the victims to the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) Makurdi for onward medical check-up and treatment.
According to the governor, out of the 15 passengers on board, eight were confirmed to be actually going to Otukpo to write JAMB while the remaining Seven were regular passengers, and I am appealing to the Examination Body to reschedule their examination.
Governor Alia commended the the Inspector General of Police for his quick response of deploying tactical teams for the rescue mission which had yielded a positive result.
Earlier, the Commissioner of Police, Ifeanyi Enemari, who presented the rescued victims to the governor, said, “Yes, we have discovered that eight out of the 15 kidnapped persons were JAMB candidates. “
The CP disclosed that, “so far the Command is in custody of eight suspects and seven of them are directly linked with the kidnapping and are giving us useful information that will lead to the arrest of the fleeing members of the gang.”
While commending other Sister Agencies for their collaborative efforts which had led to the rescue, the CP also lauded that members of the local vigilance groups in the area, civil protection guards, Agro rangers among others for their consistent support.
“I want to announce here that the Inspector General of Police has already directed the clearance of Ankara forest in Ohimini and already the joint Security Taskforce are already in all the security prone areas to enforce the direction of the clearance operations across the State”, the CP said.
In seperate remarks, some of the rescued JAMB candidates, who spoke to BusinessDay, including Buter Ngodoo Agatha, Wende Paul, Iornav Ngukulan, Give Ngutor Daniel all said they were going to Otukpo to write JAMB in different centers before the ugly incident.
They all affirmed that the kidnappers were all Fulanis. “As they were speaking the language to themselves and when they wanted to talk to us they would switch to Pigin English, we trekked from 8pm to 5 am, we were beaten thoroughly, when they discovered our parents were not buoyant to pay ransom.
“They gave us unriped mangoes to eat as food when they discovered we were hungry and tired the next (following) day and even took us to drink still waters from a pond that look like a dry stream”, the victims recounted their ordeals in the hands of kidnappers.
The Commissioner of Police, however, gave names of the rescued victims to include AUGUSTINE SUNDAY OKECHALO, EMMANUEL OKECHALO, ELAIGWU JOSHUA , HYACINTH OKOH, WENDE PAUL, NYIKWAGH BENJAMIN, NYIKWAGH AONDOKATOR, IORNAV NGUKULAN, GBILE NGUTOR DANIEL, AKOR JESSICA, BUTER AGATHA, UKAHA TERSOO JOHN, ORIH RAPHAEL SYLVESTER, KIM TIMOTHY and SIMON FRIDAY.
