The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Joint Campus Council Lagos, has raised alarm over growing insecurity on federal highways after a delegation of student leaders narrowly escaped an attempted abduction on their way to the South-West Zone D Convention at Ekiti State University.
In a Tuesday statement, NANS JCC Lagos Public Relations Officer, Ridwan Ajayi, said the incident underscores a complete collapse of security along major federal roads.
The delegation departed Lagos last Friday with principal officers and student leaders on official national assignment. Their journey was delayed due to a mechanical fault, pushing them to the Ilesa axis near midnight, a stretch increasingly notorious for kidnappings and violent attacks.
According to the statement, armed men ambushed the students’ vehicle, flashing blinding torches and boxing it in, and the driver narrowly evaded captivity by reversing and escaping, while the attackers pursued briefly on foot before retreating.
It partly reads, “Suddenly, blinding torchlights flashed directly in front of our vehicle, compelling us to slow down. Within seconds, armed men emerged and boxed us in.
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“In what can only be described as a split-second decision between captivity and survival, our driver acted with extraordinary courage, reversing toward the attackers and creating just enough space to escape.”
Even after their escape, NANS noted that the assailants maintained control of the highway, abducting other travellers, with no security personnel present during the ordeal. The students also observed an empty bus abandoned in the bush, suggesting another attempted abduction had occurred.
NANS described the ambush as part of a nationwide pattern of unchecked highway criminality, pointing to recent attacks in Kogi and Kwara states involving senior government officials and passengers.
The student body held the Inspector General of Police accountable for the failure to secure travellers, calling it a “glaring and unacceptable collapse of intelligence gathering, highway patrol, surveillance coordination, and rapid response mechanisms.”
The council demanded immediate measures to restore safety along federal roads, warning that students may mobilise constitutionally to demand accountability if urgent action is not taken at known flashpoints such as the Ilesa axis.
“This is not merely an unfortunate incident. It is a glaring and unacceptable collapse of intelligence gathering, highway patrol, surveillance coordination, and rapid response mechanisms.
“The Inspector General of Police has failed spectacularly. Armed criminals can dominate a federal highway for hours without resistance, signalling systemic insecurity.
“We refuse to normalise this level of insecurity. Nigerian students cannot continue to travel in fear while those constitutionally empowered to protect lives are conspicuously absent.
“If urgent, decisive action is not taken to secure known flashpoints such as the Ilesa axis and other major highways, students across all campuses will be compelled to mobilise democratically and constitutionally to demand accountability,” the statement concluded.
(Vanguard)
