Kidnappers of 20 medical students of the Universities of Jos and Maiduguri have demanded a ransom of N50 million. They also threatened to start killing some of the students from Sunday if they did not get the money on Saturday, 17 August, 2024.

The students were heading to the annual convention of the Federation of Catholic Medical and Dental Students (FECAMDS) in Enugu State when kidnappers cornered them on Thursday. They were ambushed and taken by gunmen around 5:30 pm in the Otukpo area of Benue State.

The kidnappers last Friday granted their victims access to their phones to enable them to interact with those who could help them raise the ransom.

Following the access granted to them, one of the kidnapped students, Kingsley Aondona wrote on his X handle: “We were kidnapped on our way to Enugu for a convention,” he tweeted. “They are requesting N50 million for 20 of us medical students. Please, help us and we haven’t eaten for two days. They said they would start killing us tomorrow.”

There is yet no response by the police authorities to the ransom demand and the threat to the lives of the victims.

Mr. Samuel Oche, the president of the Benue Medical Student Association, also  confirmed that he spoke with one of the kidnapped students on Friday.

“As of yesterday, we still had access to them. We tried to know if we could still contact them, and one of them, Boniface, confirmed to me on call that the kidnappers were asking for N50 million collectively,” Oche was reported as saying. 

As is the case in many situations of abductions, families of the abducted mostly rely on public contributions to pay the ransom. When asked how much had been raised to pay the kidnappers, Oche said: “To be honest, I have no idea if the contributions have started or not. I think this should be a national security concern, not individuals trying to contribute money..

“Some of the abductees were chatting with us right from in there. These are some of the hints that we have that are supposed to enable security agencies to make use of to track these people and get them out for us rather than donating money.”

@Nigerian_Doctor, an X account dedicated to posting issues in the medical field told FIJ that the kidnappers had also made calls and asked for the N50 million ransom.

The list of the 20 kidnapped medical students:

1) Boniface Tizhe
2) Thomas Yahaya
3) Gabriel Jita Iwev
4) Boniface Okon
5) Dondo Fabian
6) John Bitrus Naga
7) Fortune Chima Umeh
8) Godwin Gregory Tumba
9) Monica Ejembi
10) Ogbonna George Chukwuebuka
11) Paul Nyampa Zira
12) Lawrence Victory Adaugo
13) Okopi Peter
14) Enger Benedicta
15) Kwaghaondo Aondona Kingsley
16) Paul Shantong
17) Victoria Cornelius
18) Pius Samson
19) Okan Adara
20) Dr Luis Mbamonyeukwu