LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Fourteen university students and staff abducted from their school in northwestern Nigeria were released Saturday after spending more than a month in captivity.
Gunmen abducted the students and staff from Greenfield University in Kaduna state on April 20. Authorities have said that one person was killed during the kidnappings.
Kaduna State commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan said in a statement that the hostages were found released along the Kaduna-Abuja road.
The gunmen had demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom and had killed five other students to pressure the remaining students’ parents to raise the money.
Aruwan did not say whether any ransom was paid, but local newspaper reports had previously quoted some of the parents as saying that a ransom was being negotiated with the gunmen.
The incident is the latest in a chain of mass abductions of students from Nigerian schools. Many schools have been forced to close due to frequent incidents of gunmen attacking schools to abduct students.
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