The Kogi State police command announced on Sunday that two students from the Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara, were killed by their abductors.
State Commissioner of Police Bethrand Onuoha confirmed the tragic news during a press briefing in Lokoja. While expressing deep regret over the incident, he did not provide specific details about the killings. However, he assured that security forces are actively pursuing the abductors.
The kidnapping occurred on May 9 at around 9:00 p.m. when the perpetrators stormed the school and fired shots indiscriminately, abducting several students who were preparing for their upcoming exams on May 13. Security agencies, with the assistance of local hunters, managed to rescue 21 of the kidnapped students, but some remain in captivity.
In response, the non-governmental organization Education For All condemned the killing of the two students. Nasir Ibrahim, the NGO’s Publicity Secretary, issued a statement in Lokoja describing the killings as extremely callous and intended to deter young people from pursuing their education. He noted that the murders occurred despite ongoing negotiations with parents to secure the students’ release.
He said, “It is sad that the criminals killed two of the students who were not among the 21 rescued through the operation coordinated by the Kogi State Government. The circumstances of their kidnap and being traced to a forest in Kwara State by security agencies have yet to be ascertained. This is sad, callous and a call for collective action against attackers of educational institutions. We are aware that parents of the students were negotiating with the kidnappers which slowed down the offensive on the kidnappers by security agencies so as not to endanger the lives of the captives. We were hopeful and optimistic that they will be released at the end of the negotiations.”
Mr Ibrahim further said that information “reaching us shows that the students allegedly killed were James Michael Anajuwe, a 100 level Information Technology student and Musa Hussein, a 100 level Software Engineering student of the university. They were allegedly killed at the kidnappers’ hideout in Kwara. We are broken and shattered that despite the efforts of the parents, NGOs and the state government, we still lost these promising students.”
He called on the Kogi State government to work with its Kwara counterpart to take a decisive action against the perpetrators who were said to be hiding in a forest in Kwara, close to Kogi and Ekiti states.
He commiserated with the families of the victims, urging the NSA and the Federal Ministry of Education to reinvigorate efforts on the Safe School Initiative.
“The painful loss of the two students should provoke the office of the National Security Adviser to work with the Federal Ministry of Education to ensure the safety of our schools across the country. It is unacceptable to lose children whose only offence was embracing education. Our nation must rise to the occasion to arrest the rising insecurity across the country,” he said.
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