The Benue State Police Command has clarified that victims of a recent kidnapping along the Makurdi–Otukpo road were not Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates as initially feared, following the arrest of seven suspects linked to the attack.
Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ifeanyi Emenari, who is personally leading the operation in Otukpo, said investigations revealed that the 14 passengers abducted from a Benue Links bus on Wednesday evening were “mainly traders and other commuters,” and not students traveling to write the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination.
“What happened was that one Benue Links bus carrying passengers coming to Otukpo was stopped and attacked by hoodlums, and 14 passengers were kidnapped, but one was able to escape,” the CP said. He added that the command had commenced an investigation into the incident, particularly the circumstances surrounding the journey, noting that Benue Links management has a policy against night travel, but the driver allegedly picked up passengers after official hours.
The clarification comes after Otukpo Local Government Chairman, Maxwell Ogiri, had earlier told reporters that “the victims are mainly young boys and girls coming to Otukpo to write JAMB.” The police said further profiling of the victims and information obtained from the seven suspects arrested during a bush operation around Ondo Village in Ugbokolo, Okpokwu LGA, showed that none of the abducted persons were registered UTME candidates for the 2026 examination.
“After hours of combing the area, 11 victims were safely located and rescued. One suspect has been arrested in connection with the kidnapping, while efforts are being made to identify and arrest the other suspects,” Police Public Relations Officer, Udeme Edet, said in an earlier statement on a similar Benue Links abduction in June 2025. In the latest case, Emenari confirmed that seven suspects are now in custody. “We are on the ground to make sure that the victims are rescued,” he said.
The police said the victims are currently receiving appropriate medical attention and psychological support. The command urged the public to disregard reports linking the kidnapped passengers to JAMB candidates, stressing that misinformation could hamper ongoing operations.
“The victims were all marched into the forest. From what we gathered, most of them were students coming to Otukpo to write JAMB,” a source in the area had said. However, the police maintained that subsequent checks disproved that claim. “Our investigation shows they were not JAMB candidates. We have the manifest and we have spoken to the families,” a senior officer involved in the rescue operation said.
The Makurdi–Otukpo Road has faced repeated attacks by gunmen in recent months. The police said tactical teams and Divisional Police Officers have been deployed to the area and that the search for remaining suspects continues.
All apprehended suspects will be charged to court after investigations are concluded, the command said.
