Four students from Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja, who had been held captive for five days in Ondo State by gunmen suspected to be kidnappers were freed on Wednesday.
According to sources, the students were released after the victims’ families paid an undisclosed ransom.
The victims were abducted last week Friday while returning to their hometown of Ajowa-Akoko in Akoko North West Local Government for Christmas.
The victims were Florence Obadero, Oreoluwa Aregbesola, Ifeoluwa Ahmed, and Omotoyosi Olarotimi. Their driver was identified as Monday Momodu.
When the car they were riding in became stuck at the Ago Jinadu axis of the road, the gunmen kidnapped the students, all female, along the Akunnu-Ajowa highway in Akoko.
An undisclosed sum was said to have been paid to ensure the students’ release, according to Soji Ogedengbe, a former majority leader in the Akoko North West Local Council.
The entire Ajowa community, according to Ogedengbe, erupted in celebration when word of the victims’ release spread in the town.
The state’s Police Public Relations Officer, SP Funmilayo Odunlami, declined to disclose whether a ransom was paid for the release of the students.