The Nigerian Army has handed over the eight recently kidnapped students of the Confluence University of Science and Technology in Kogi State to the government.
The students were rescued on Sunday in a forest near Oro Ago village in Kwara State following coordinated search and rescue operations by the Nigerian Army in collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies.
The Nigerian Army, in a statement posted on on Monday, revealed that it formally handed over the students to the Kogi State Government in a ceremony that took place at the Headquarters Nigerian Army Conference Room in Abuja.
The governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, who received the students, expressed his gratitude to the Nigerian Army and other security agencies for their dedication and sacrifice in rescuing the students.
The statement partly read, “He affirmed confidence in the capability of the security forces to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
“The governor also reiterated the Kogi State Government’s unwavering support for the security forces in the ongoing operations against terrorism and other criminalities in the state.”
The chief of Policy and Plans, Major General Abdulsalam Ibrahim, who represented the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, at the event, was also reported to have assured the governor that “the troops, in synergy with other security forces, have intensified their efforts to track down the kidnappers and bring them to justice.”
Some heavily armed bandits had swooped on the campus on May 9 and whisked away an unspecified number of students preparing for their first-semester examination scheduled to start the following Monday, May 12.
On May 13, seven of them were said to have been rescued in the forest beside Obajana Road, while another 14 were also reportedly rescued a week later.
Last week, the Kogi State Police commissioner, Bertrand Onuoha, confirmed the killing of two of the kidnapped students.
