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The Governor of Benue State, Hyacinth Alia, has asked the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to reschedule the exam for eight students who were kidnapped during the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) period.
The Governor of Benue State, Hyacinth Alia, has asked the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to reschedule the exam for eight students who were kidnapped during the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) period.
The students were kidnapped last Wednesday along the Makurdi–Otukpo road. They were travelling in a bus when armed men attacked and took them into the forest.
On Sunday, the Nigerian Army rescued the remaining victims from a forest in Ohimini Local Government Area of Benue State. The governor said that 15 people were kidnapped in total, but two escaped earlier before the rescue operation.
Governor Alia said the rescued victims include students and other passengers. He explained that security forces worked with local communities to find and rescue them safely.
He then appealed to JAMB to allow the eight students among the victims to write their examination again since they missed it due to the kidnapping incident.
However, the police and JAMB had earlier said that the victims were not actually UTME candidates.
They explained that the travellers were going for a police recruitment exercise and were returning to Otukpo when they were kidnapped.
Although, there is confusion about whether the kidnapped victims were UTME candidates or not, but the governor still wants JAMB to give affected students another chance to sit for the exam.
