3 Travelers Kidnapped With ABU Students Killed, Others Regain Freedom

The Kaduna State Police Command said last night that the three final year Law students from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, kidnapped on the Kaduna-Abuja highway on Tuesday evening, have been released.

Spokesman Yakubu Sabo confirmed the development last night, saying the students have been reunited with their families.

He said they were the last set of abductees in the kidnappers’ custody before they were released.

Seven persons, including the three final year Law students, were abducted on the highway on Tuesday around 6 pm.

An unconfirmed report has it that the kidnappers killed three other persons during the operation.

A video that has gone viral on the social media shows security men in the convoy of former Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo firing gunshots to disperse the kidnappers.

A commercial driver, Ibrahim Ahmed, told The Nation: “I escaped the attack because the convoy of one former governor, which I was driving behind, arrived the scene during the operation. The guards then fired shots and dispersed the kidnappers, but they abducted many people.

“They blocked the expressway and fired at the vehicles passing before the former governor arrived. They kidnapped people during the operation and took them into a forest.

“I saw three people on the floor. I think were already dead because they did not move.

“I narrowly escaped being kidnapped too. In fact, if I had overtaken the convoy as some of my passengers had requested, we would have probably been kidnapped too.”

Another driver, Samaila Rabiu, said three people were killed during the incident.

He added: “A colleague, who escaped the attack, told us that three people, who tried to escape, were shot by the kidnappers.”