14 JAMB Candidates Kidnapped on Benue Highway — CP Leads Rescue Operation

Gunmen have abducted 14 passengers, most of them candidates of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exam, along the Makurdi-Otukpo road in Benue State on Wednesday evening. The victims were travelling in a commercial bus from Makurdi to Otukpo to sit for their UTME examinations scheduled for Thursday.

The attack occurred between 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM on April 15. Of the approximately 16 passengers on board the Benue Links bus, only the driver and one passenger managed to escape. The remaining 14 — young men and women with exam slips instead of ID cards — were taken into the bush by their captors.

The Rescue Operation

Benue State Commissioner of Police CP Ifeanyi Enemari confirmed the abduction and said he is personally leading the rescue operation. “I’m in Otukpo now. My team and all DPOs are in the bush, and I am heading the operation,” Enemari said.

The CP also raised questions about the bus operator’s conduct, noting that Benue Links, as a policy, does not usually operate at night. “From what we gathered, official operations had closed, but the driver, for reasons we are still investigating, picked up passengers along the road. When he got here, the incident occurred,” he explained.

The Otukpo LGA Chairman’s Account

Chairman of Otukpo Local Government Area, Maxwell Ogiri, confirmed that the victims are young people heading to Otukpo to write JAMB. “Security agents have been deployed and efforts are ongoing to rescue them,” he said.

The Police Public Relations Officer in Benue State, DSP Udeme Edet, said she had not yet received an official report at the time of contact — a troubling detail that suggests the communication gap between field operations and police headquarters may be contributing to delayed responses.

What This Means

This is not just another kidnapping statistic. These are children — teenagers who have spent months preparing for an exam that could determine the trajectory of their entire lives. They were on their way to write JAMB. Instead, they are now in the hands of gunmen somewhere in the Benue bush.

The ACF declared Nigeria is in a “state of war” over insecurity this week. The military buried Brigadier General Braimah with full honours. And now 14 JAMB candidates have been kidnapped on a federal highway. The war the ACF described is not abstract — it is eating children.

Sources: FirstDaily, NaijaNews, Daily Trust