The Kogi State Government has said some students of the Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara, Okene, who were kidnapped by gunmen last Thursday have been rescued by local hunters and security operatives.
This is contained in a statement issued on Sunday by the State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo.
The statement did not mention the numbers of rescued students.
The statement read, “This is to inform the general public that some of the students abducted by gunmen at the Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara, have been rescued safely by local hunters and other security agents, hours after the executive Governor of the state, His Excellency Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, visited the institution to assure parents of his commitment to rescuing the students.
“Local vigilante men and security agents engaged the kidnappers in a fierce shootout and the kidnappers succumbed to superior firepower and escaped with gunshot wounds, leaving the kidnapped students running in different directions to avoid being caught up in the fire exchange,” he said.
Bandits abducted the students who were reading for their upcoming exams on Thursday night, swooping into the university around 9 p.m.
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 statement also noted that “nine students” were reported missing as security operatives and local hunters were working to ensure the safe rescue of the abducted students.
On his visit to the school campus, Ododo alleged there was an insider collaboration in the abduction of the nine students.
He said, “We installed CCTV cameras in all the classrooms and the entire perimeter of the university campus yet on the day of the attack, our investigation so far revealed that all the cameras were switched off and this can only be attributed to sabotage by internal collaborators.”
