Two students, their school principal, and a National Examination Council staff member kidnapped in Kogi State have regained their freedom, the state government confirmed, hours after their captors demanded a ransom of N10 million.

The victims, students of Government Secondary School, Olowa, in Dekina Local Government Area, along with their Principal and an ad hoc NECO official, were abducted on Tuesday evening from the examination centre in Olowa.

The Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Femi Fanwo, disclosed that the rescue followed a coordinated security operation ordered by Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo immediately after the abduction. The Governor directed the State Security Adviser, Commander Jerry Omodara (retired), to lead a joint mission involving the Nigerian Army, the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Police Force, local vigilante groups, and other operatives.

Fanwo revealed that sustained pressure on the kidnappers and the saturation of the forest by armed security personnel forced the criminals to abandon the victims and flee. He confirmed that the principal, the NECO official, and the two students had all been rescued safely and were with security agencies for debriefing and medical checks. Security operatives remain in the forest as the operation continues.

Earlier, the Commissioner of Police, Naziru Kankarofi, had stated that the gunmen contacted relatives of the principal to demand the ransom. The Commanding Officer of the 21 Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Godiya Monde, noted that troops had sealed suspected escape routes to prevent the abductors from moving deeper into the forest, adding that operatives were using calls made by the kidnappers to trace their location.

Kankarofi explained that the property used for the examination was neither accredited by NECO nor approved by the Kogi State Government for public examinations. According to him, the principal, Solomon Audu, and the NECO official, Daniel Iya, took about 10 selected students to a remote and abandoned part of the school premises to sit the exam.

Fanwo commended the Nigerian Army, the DSS, the police, and other agencies for their swift response, describing it as evidence of effective interagency collaboration. Kankarofi added that the state government and school administrators had since agreed to assemble students in safer, approved locations for future NECO examinations to prevent a recurrence.