Police rescue four abducted university students

Four students of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Port Harcourt, abducted on Saturday, have been rescued by the police in Rivers State.

Sam Kpenu, the spokesperson of the university, in a statement issued on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, confirmed that the students have been rescued.

According to him, the students, two Ph.D. and two undergraduate students, were abducted while they were on their way to Orashi River in the state.

He gave the names of the four students as Gbaa Nenubari, Asumbo Elizabeth, Eze Chimezie, and Onosigho Augustine.

“They were on their way to Orashi River for vegetation sampling for their final-year project and post-graduate research works when they were abducted,” he stated.

Mr Kpenu said the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Owunari Georgewill, received the rescued students and commended the institution’s chief security officer and security agencies for their prompt intervention.

“We are happy that the students are back unhurt and now reunited with their families and friends.

“We sympathise with them for what they went through in the hands of their abductors,” Mr Georgewill was quoted as saying.

With insecurity spreading in different parts of Nigeria, abduction-for-ransom has become commonplace in the country.

A professor of economics, Obansa Joseph at the University of Abuja was abducted alongside two of his children and other people in November by gunmen who stormed the university staff quarters.