Security forces clash over rescued varsity students

The Kogi State Government announced on Sunday that an additional eight students from the Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara, Lokoja, who were previously kidnapped, have been successfully rescued.

The Kwara State Police Command has confirmed the rescue of the students, stating that they were found and freed in a forest located in the Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State.

However, the Kwara police, condemned soldiers for forcefully taking away the rescued students.

“The students were rescued and taken to the Divisional Police Headquarters Oro-Ago in Kwara State in preparation for their onward movement to receive medical attention at the state capital, Ilorin. However, on arrival at the station, the students appeared weak and in dirty clothes. Police operatives provided presentable clothes and breakfast.

“While making preparations for their onward movement to Ilorin, soldiers in a convoy with three operational vehicles stormed Oro-Ago police station, overpowered the police operatives and forcefully took custody of the rescued students without proper handing over.

“This act is disrespectful to the force; totally unacceptable. The behavior of the soldiers is likened to an act unbecoming of an officer. And necessary actions will be taken to report their conduct to the higher authority,” the Kwara police command said in a statement.

The Kogi State Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, in a statement on Sunday, said the eight students were those left in the kidnappers’ den after 21 were earlier rescued and the abductors killed two.

It was reported that gun-wielding kidnappers on the night of May 9 invaded the Osara campus of the university and abducted an unspecified number of students.

The students were said to be attending a tutorial class in preparation for their first semester examination when the terrorists swooped on them.

As of May 17, security agencies were able to rescue 21 of them.

But last week, the police and the university authorities announced that the kidnappers killed two of the students remaining in captivity.

On Sunday, the information commissioner said eight of the students left in captivity had been finally rescued from a forest in Kwara State.

Fanwo said, “The Government of Kogi State expresses profound gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for directing the mobilisation of resources to ensure the rescue of the kidnapped students. We also thank the National Security Adviser immensely for his commitment to the release of the students and the general security of the state.

“The Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Naval Staff, the Chief of Air Staff, the Director General of the DSS, the Inspector General of Police and all the officers and men of the Armed Forces who put in their best as well as the pilots, did a wonderful job to support us in reuniting the kidnapped students with their families.”

The government also lauded the local hunters who actively participated in the rescue effort.

Fanwo quoted Governor Usman Ododo as expressing “immense gratitude to his Kwara State counterpart, Governor AbdulRahmam AbdulRazak, for his personal commitment, cooperation and support towards the success of the operation that led to the rescue of the remaining kidnapped students.”

“The Kwara State Governor showed the reason he is effectively leading the Nigerian Governors Forum. His actions have also reinforced the Kogi/Kwara cooperation and unity of purpose,” he said.

He added that: “Now that the remaining students have been rescued, our administration will continue the drive to recalibrate our security architecture and pay 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.”

He disclosed that Kogi had domesticated the Child Rights Act and had made education free up to the secondary school level.

“We also pay the registration fees for our students to take 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,” he added.