Suspected bandits kidnap 18 Oyo students, k!ll driver on Sokoto trip

Suspected bandits have allegedly kidnapped 18 students from Oyo State after attacking their chartered bus while they were travelling from Sokoto State to their hometowns in Oke-Ogun.

The students, who attend Gamji College of Health Technology, Sokoto, were reportedly intercepted along the route to Oyo State within the past 48 hours, with the attackers allegedly killing the driver before taking the students away.

An Oke-Ogun youth leader, who spoke anonymously, confirmed the incident and said the victims were students of Gamji College of Health Technology, not Usmanu Danfodiyo University (UDUS) students as earlier reported.

“Sadly, the unfortunate incident is being confirmed by me because I’m from Oke-Ogun too, and our people have confirmed that it truly happened in the past 48 hours,” he said.

He explained that the students were travelling in a chartered bus arranged by their school, with Igboho in Oke-Ogun as their destination.

“But it wasn’t a bus conveying UDUS students. It was a bus taking students from Gamji College of Health Technology, Sokoto, to Oke-Ogun, Igboho to be precise,” he said.

According to the youth leader, the attackers killed the driver before abducting all the students and moving them towards the Mokwa axis.

“The driver was killed and all the students were kidnapped. They have reached the Mokwa side,” he said.

He also disclosed that the remains of the driver had been buried.

The incident comes days after 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members were reportedly abducted in Imo State while travelling from Ibadan to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.