Chika Nwabueze
Dare devil gunmen during the week stormed the Elele Campus of the Madonna University, Rivers State and abducted students of the university, including a final year medical student, master Ebuka Nwakanma.
The incident according to News Critic investigation took place on May 23, evening hours while the students were preparing to retire for the day. It was gathered that the gunmen drove into the school campus and headed straight to the hostel section while shooting sporadically into the air to scare away the security guards who scampered for their safety.
It was gathered that as the students heard the gun shots they tried to escape but some were unfortunate as the gunmen had already closed in on them and captured as many of them as they could and drove off. Among the students abducted is Ebuka, a native of Umuda Okpuala Isingwu, in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State.
The boy who is a final year medical students just returned back to school on Monday to defend his project before the ugly incident happened. He was said to have come out from his hostel to fetch water when the gunmen rounded them up and disappeared.
At the time of filing this report the abductors have contacted the parents of Ebuka and demanded for N5, 000,000 (Five Million Naira) ransom on his head. The parents are retired teachers in Abia State secondary school system. Also, News Critic gathered that the abductors have contacted the Madonna university authorities asking them to pay ransom to secure the release of their students. They were also warned by the abductors not to contact the police so as not to invite their wrath this Newspaper was told.
The Madonna authorities who have been besieged by the parents of the abducted students were said to have declined to pay ransom, on the grounds that doing so will be an invitation for more kidnapping of their students in future. They said they have resigned to prayers for the safe release of the students, an answer that did not go down well with the parents.
At the time of this reports it is not clear whether the police have waded fully into the incident to hunt down the kidnappers of the school children, but the parents said they are wary about police intervention because of the safety of their wards.
