Around 30 travelers, including students from the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, were reportedly kidnapped by suspected assailants along the Abuja-Nasarawa Highway on Friday.
According to a source speaking to PUNCH Metro anonymously due to the sensitive nature of the incident, the kidnappers ambushed the vehicles carrying the travelers and forcibly took them into a nearby forest area in the Uke region of Nasarawa State.
The source added that among those abducted was a student of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, who was en route to visit her family in Abuja.
Additionally, it was gathered that a driver from one of the buses managed to evade the attack and promptly alerted the local police to the unfolding situation.
The source said, “Thirty persons were kidnapped between Nasarawa and Abuja on Friday. The passengers were abducted from two buses and taken into the bush around a place called Uke in Nasarawa State.
“One of the passengers abducted in the incidents is an HND student of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, in Nasarawa State, who was returning to Abuja to meet her family.
After managing to flee the scene, one of the bus drivers retrieved belongings left behind, including a phone belonging to one of the abducted victims, before promptly reporting the incident to the police station in Uke.
When approached by PUNCH Metro for comment on Sunday, Rahman Nansel, the Nasarawa Police Public Relations Officer, verified the occurrence during a telephone exchange with our correspondent. Nansel emphasized that three individuals had been successfully rescued, with ongoing efforts underway for a search and rescue operation.
He, however, said the abducted persons were not up to 30 as claimed but did not confirm the number of the victims.
“The number (30) was exaggerated. An 18-seater bus was recovered at the scene and three people were rescued. A search and rescue operation is still ongoing,” Nansel told our correspondent
