‘Forced to eat garri and mangoes, attacked with machetes’ – JAMB candidate shares harrowing Benue abduction experience

A harrowing experience was recounted by Agatha Buter, a rescued Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board candidate, who was among the passengers abducted by armed men along the Makurdi-Otukpo highway while traveling in a Benue Links bus.

Agatha's terrifying ordeal occurred last Wednesday, when she and other passengers, including eight JAMB candidates en route to write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in Otukpo, were seized by their captors in an 18-seater bus.

The abducted victims were eventually brought to the Benue State Government House, where they were presented to Governor Hyacinth Alia after their release, marking the end of their traumatic experience.

Agatha revealed that during their captivity, they were subjected to severe intimidation and physical abuse, as their abductors used guns, bullets, and cutlasses to force their parents to pay a ransom of N10 million.

The male victims, in particular, suffered greatly, as they were beaten repeatedly with cutlasses, according to Agatha, who explained that the kidnappers targeted them in an effort to expedite the ransom payment.

Agatha identified their captors as armed herdsmen operating from a forest-based settlement, and noted that the group was poorly fed throughout their captivity, with a meager diet of gari with salt and occasionally mangoes.

On the third day of their captivity, the victims were forced to go without food and drink unsafe water, an experience that Agatha described as deeply traumatic and emotionally shaking.

Expressing gratitude, Agatha thanked security agencies and the Benue State Government for their intervention, which ultimately contributed to the victims' release from their terrifying ordeal.