Twenty medical students, including a house officer, have been freed after being held captive for over a week. The group was kidnapped along the Otukpo-Enugu Highway in Benue State, north-central Nigeria, and was released on Friday, 23 Aug., a family source confirmed to HumAngle.

The students have reunited with their families but are still under the custody of security operatives. “She’s excited to be back, but the ordeal of the last nine days is not what she wants to remember,” a family member who had a video call with one of the students told HumAngle. The students are currently receiving medical attention and are expected to be fully released to their families within the next week. 

Confirming the release, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, spokesperson for the Nigeria Police Force, said: “They were rescued tactically and professionally without any ransom being paid.” He added that the students were freed in Utonkon Forest, in Benue’s Ado Local Government Area, in a rescue mission coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser. 

In a statement, FECAMDS noted that the kidnappers had been “apprehended by security operatives.” HumAngle cannot independently verify these claims.

“Indeed, our faith was put to the test,” Gabriel Ige, the National President of FECAMDS, said in a statement. “We are truly relieved; it has been one of the most traumatic weeks of my life,” said the brother of one of the students.

The students from the Universities of Jos and Maiduguri were abducted on Thursday, 15 Aug., while travelling to the Federation of Catholic Medical and Dental Students (FECAMDS) annual convention. The following day, the abductors demanded a ₦50 million ransom. Although crowdfunding attempts were made, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, via the FECAMDS National Chaplain, reportedly asked that the campaign be put on hold as deliberations with security operatives were ongoing.

“Contrary to some tweets and unconfirmed stories that some money was paid, no kobo was paid to release them,” according to Adejobi. 

In Nigeria, crowdfunding ransom on social media to secure the release of loved ones appears to be the new normal; a HumAngle report highlights that it is “a slippery path to a more distressing situation.”

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit has identified ransom payments as a significant source of terrorism financing in the country. In response, the Nigerian Senate passed a bill in 2022 imposing harsh penalties on those who pay ransoms to kidnappers.

Recently, Isah Bawa, the Emir of Gobir in Gawata town, Sokoto state in northwest Nigeria, who was held captive for over three weeks, was killed by the abductors. His son, Isa Bawa, who was abducted alongside him, was later released alive after a ₦60 million ransom was reportedly paid.