By Sueleima Umaru
For years , Kidnappers have made mockery of Nigerian security apparatus by kidnapping their victims at will and taking them to the hideouts in the forests in order to prepare the ground to make their ransom m demands that could have run into millions of naira. This may have made Nuhu Ribadu, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, who incidentally was a former Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and now National Security Adviser, NSA, under the present President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration to mobilize the security agencies Chiefs to go back to the drawing how to deal decisively with the kidnappers and sponsors.
The kidnap of 20 medical students of College of Health Sciences, University of Jos, Plateau state, who were on their way to Ennugu for the Federation of Catholic Medical and Dental Students, annual Convention, along the Otukpo-Enugu road, on August 15, 2024, when the were kidnapped by trigger-hungry bandits and taken to their forest hideouts in readiness to make their ransom demands.
This may have encouraged Kayode Egbetokun, Inspector General of Police, IGP, who had the backing of the NSA, to order prompt deployment of a substantial number of human and technical resources to augment the manpower of the Benue state Police Command and ensure the swift rescue of the students. .
This initiative may have led to the mobilization of additional tactical units from the FD-SRT and FID-IRT , the deployment of advanced helicopters and drones as well as the use of specialized tactical vehicles to facilitate the search and rescue of the victims.
With the support of the NSA, who was said to have coordinated the operations, the IGP’s team were said to have moved into the Benue forests in search of the kidnappers’ hideouts to rescue the victims. They had their way.
Olumuyiwa Adejobi, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, and the Force spokesperson who had confirmed the rescue of the 20 University of Jos and Maiduguri , medical students, had said that the search to get the students rescued had taken the police operation team to Ntunkon forest, Benue state.
Acting on the directive of the operation that was aid to have been Coordinated by the NSA, the deployed land and air assets who were determined to make history were said to have tracked down the kidnapped College of Health Sciences, Universities of Jos and Maiduguri students around Ajide forest in Ukwonyo Council ward, in Ado Local Government Area of the north central state of Benue.
The source disclosed that the police tactical squad could rescue the kidnapped medical students with little or resistance from the kidnapper because the Force helicopters deployed for the operation had been hovering around the Benue forests in the past few days while, police, military and Department of State Service , DSS, personnel, armed to the teeth who were stationed at strategic locations around the Ajide forests, making it possible for them to get to the kidnappers hideout in Ntunkon forest without much hassles on Friday, August 23, 24 .
The kidnappers who were said to have been caught unawares were said to have tried to shield themselves with the victims failed to do so because of the massive pressure from the security operatives. They may have known that the game is up as some of them were said to have tries to escape but fell into the waiting hands of the security personnel who were said to have wasted their lives and two apprehended who are aid to be helping the police in their investigations to get others in the kidnap gang and sponsors.
An elated Adejobi, had said that the 20 kidnapped medical students were ‘’tactically and professionally rescued’’ from their captivity in the hands of the kidnappers in Ntunkon forest, without payment of any ransom to any party contrary to reports making the rounds that millions of naira was paid to the kidappers as ransomm. The rescue of the 20 medical students who had been in the kidnappers’ custody since August 15, 2025 and Friday, August 23, 2024, clearly shows that when the Nigerian security Operatives wants to do their work, they will do it professionally and get results that would be applauded by all.
Peter Obi , a former governor of Anambra state and Presidential Candidate of the Opposition Labour Party , LP, in the February 25, 202, Presidential election, in which Tinubu, of the ruling All Progressive Congress , APC, had won, had described the rescue of the University of Jos and University of Maiduguri , medical students , as ‘’relieving and gladdening ‘’ and giving kudos to the security and intelligence agencies operatives who had contributed to the success of the rescue operations.
Beyond rescuing the 20 medical students in kidnappers custody in Ntunkon forest in Benue state, the former Anambra state governor would want the the Nigetian Government and the security agencies operatives to be proactive in preventing these criminal activities that have made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations from occurring in the future .
He was said to have also enjoined the Government to ensure that those behind nefarious acts are brought to book as a deterrence to others who might want to indulge in such crime in future. .
The former LP, Presidential Candidate, who could not hide his feelings had said that ‘’insecurity and those behind it in the country must be stopped at all costs for the country to move forward.
Another major breakthrough by the NSA, Coordinated security team, was the rescue of some eight the Nigerian Youth Service, NYSC, members , kidnapped along Funtua- Gusau, road of Zamfara state, on August 17, 2023, while travelling from Uyo, Akwa Ibom, home state of Godswill Akpabio, President of the Senate to the north western state of Sokoto in an an Akwa Ibom Transport Company, AKTC, bus to participate in the NYSC.
That much was confirmed by Yusa’u Ahmed, an Army Major General and Director General, NYSC, who had said that the security agencies personnel who had been on top of the matter since the kidnap incident happened had facilitated the rescue of the victims, noting that it greatly shows the commitment of the Tinubu’s Administration ‘’to the welfare and security of Corps members’’.
Appealing to prospective Corps members to stop travelling at night, the Army Chief said ‘’it is the only way they will avoid the risk associated with night travels’’. The NYSC boss, had said that that some of the victims had been rescued since 2023 , while this second batch of the kidnapped Corps members were rescued on Wednesday, August 21, 21, 24.
The report of the rescue of the Akwa Ibom state Corps members appears to have coincided with the rescue of the 20 University of Jos and University of Maiduguri, in Ntunkon forest in Benue state from the custody of the Bandits.
While Nigerians are still celebrating the rescue of the rescue of the 20 medical students of Universities of Jos and Maiduguri from the custody of bandits operating in Benue state, information had filtered out that the Bandits Group fighters had taken advantage of the withdrawal of troops from Alawa Community in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger, home state of Ibrahim Babangida, a retired Army and former Nigerian military President, to overrun the Community.
A resident of the Community confirmed that since the soldiers were withdrawn from the Community some five months ago, the Community have never known peace a farmers have constantly been attacked. The most recent attack on the Alawa Community was on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, where 1 farmers were said to have been brutally murdered in their fields in the outskirts of the village.
The situation in Alawa Community I so worrisome that Yakubu Garba, acting governor of the state , has called on Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, the Chief of Army Staff, to urgently deploy troops to the Shiroro LGA, to save the Communities that had become vulnerable to incessant attacks by Bandits in the recent time.
The murder of four other farmers at Kerewa, a border Community with the Central African County of Cameroun, at the Mandara Mountains in Gwoza LGA, of Borno state by suspected Islamic Fundamentalist Group, Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West African Province, ISWAP, terrorists, on Thursday, August 22, 2024, is a clear indications that the NSA and security Chiefs needed to do more to curtail the excesses of these hired killers. Barely two months ago, a multiple explosions planted by the insurgents had killed over 330 persons in Gwoza town that was said to have sent Prof Umara Zulum , the state governor in very low spirit.
In spite of the fact that the Bandits Group fighters in the north western states of Zamfara, Sokoto, Kaduna, Katsina, home state of former President Muhammadu Buhari and the north central state of Niger and the insurgents operating in the north eastern states of Borno and Yobe, may look good as coming back in full force, to attack vulnerable Communities, it may not likely going to find it too easy to kill and go in the coming months.
This is because the Nigerian President who is a hurry to address the complex security challenges in the country once and for all has vowed ’’to invoke his Constitutional powers to continue ‘’to equip, arm and empower the military’’.
Stanly Nkwocha, the Media and Communications Aide to Vice President Kashim Shettima, who incidentally was a one-time governor of the north eastern state of Borno, had said that the Nigerian President gave his word to continue to equip and arm the military during the graduation of Course 2 Participants at the National Defense College, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
