Hyacinth Alia, governor of Benue, has asked the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to reschedule examination for the eight candidates of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) kidnapped last Wednesday.
The victims were abducted along the Makurdi-Otukpo road in Benue state.
On Sunday, troops of the Nigerian army rescued the remaining victims in a forest at Okere ward in Ohimini LGA of Benue.
Speaking on Sunday at the government house in Makurdi, Alia said 15 people were kidnapped in the attack, but two later escaped.
According to Punch Newspaper, Alia confirmed that the remaining victims were rescued in the early hours of Sunday.
“Many of the students were travelling to Otukpo. Seven were regular passengers, and 15 were kidnapped that fateful day. One of the victims escaped, and another one escaped the following day,” Alia reportedly said.
“Today, all the remaining 13 kidnap victims were rescued by the security agents with the cooperation of the communities.
“I call on JAMB to look into the case of the eight young students and reschedule dates for them to write their examination.”
On Friday, the Benue state police command said the abducted passengers in the Makurdi-bound commercial bus were not UTME candidates.
In a statement, Udeme Edet, the command’s spokesperson, said reports describing the victims as UTME candidates were “misinformation and incorrect.”
On Saturday, JAMB also said the abducted travellers were not UTME candidates.iii
Fabian Benjamin, the board’s public communications adviser, said in a statement that those involved had travelled to Makurdi to participate in an ongoing police recruitment exercise and were returning to Otukpo at the time of the incident.iii
