Some masked gunmen have abducted a 12-year-old student of a private secondary school in the Challenge area of Ibadan in Oyo State.
Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred around 7:20 a.m. when the armed men intercepted the girl as she was being dropped off at a junction leading to her school premises.
The attackers, reportedly masked and travelling in a vehicle without registration number plates, fired sporadically into the air to disperse bystanders and scare motorists.
A witness, who requested anonymity, said the kidnappers pursued the girl’s mother before forcefully taking the child away, despite her resistance. The assailants were said to have fled through the Challenge axis of the ancient city immediately after the abduction.
Confirming the development, the Oyo State Police Command described the incident as a case of suspected kidnapping and disclosed that detectives were promptly deployed to the scene.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Olayinka Ayanlade, in a statement issued in Ibadan on Thursday, said preliminary findings indicated that the young girl was abducted by unknown armed men as she alighted from a vehicle conveying her to school.
According to him, eyewitnesses at the scene have been identified and questioned, and their statements are providing useful leads for ongoing investigations.
He further stated that the victim’s parents are in close contact with the police as efforts intensify to ensure her safe rescue.
“The Commissioner of Police has directed a comprehensive and intelligence-driven investigation into the incident. All possibilities and options are being explored to unravel the circumstances surrounding the abduction and bring the perpetrators to justice,” the statement read.
The command urged residents to remain calm and cooperate with security agencies by providing credible information, assuring that all tips would be treated with strict confidentiality. Further updates, the police added, would be communicated as investigations progress.