In an interview with The Nigerian Tribune, Paul Shatong, one of the twenty medical students who had been abducted by gunmen in Benue State and just freed, described the terrifying details of his experience. Together with other University of Maiduguri students, the students were abducted while going from Jos to a Catholic conference in Enugu.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
According to Shatong, their journey began early on a Friday morning as they traveled in a single bus. Around 3 a.m., near Makurdi, their bus encountered a flat tire, forcing them to stop and fix it. They resumed their trip shortly after but, around 6 a.m., after passing a checkpoint, their bus was overtaken by another vehicle. Suddenly, armed kidnappers emerged from the bush, forcing them all into the forest.
The group spent nine days in captivity, facing uncertainty and fear. Shatong recounted how the kidnappers eventually released them unexpectedly, without any explanation. One morning, their captors simply instructed them to follow a path through the bush, saying that after walking for 30 minutes, they would find a market.
During their time in captivity, Shatong and his fellow students had no idea what was going on outside the forest. They were unaware that some of their captors had been arrested. It was only later that they learned the kidnappers’ leader and six others had gone to collect a ransom, but were apprehended in town. Additionally, other members of the kidnapping group, along with their families, were reportedly arrested in Borno or nearby locations.
The arrests of these key figures placed pressure on the remaining kidnappers. Under this pressure, the captors were forced to release the students without further harm. Shatong expressed relief that the ordeal ended without the situation escalating, but the trauma of the experience remained with the group.
In his words, “when the leader and six others went to town to collect the ransom, that was when they were arrested. Some of their leaders were also arrested in Borno or somewhere along with their family members. So, they were pressured to call the remaining captors in the bush to release us.”
The incident has raised concerns about the safety of students and travelers in the region, as well as the increasing frequency of kidnappings in Nigeria. Although they were eventually freed, the students’ experience underscores the dangers of traveling in areas prone to such attacks.
