Group demands release of six abducted Anambra law students

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law has called on the Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and the Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Ikioye Orutugu, to collaborate with their counterparts from other states for the rescue of six Anambra law students.

Six students of the Nigerian Law School have been abducted by suspected gunmen while travelling from Onitsha, Anambra State, to Yola, Adamawa State.

The incident, it was gathered occurred in the late hours of Saturday, July 26, as the students were on their way to resume academic activities at the Yola campus of the Nigerian Law School, scheduled to reopen on Monday, July 28, following their court externship break.

A fellow law student at the Yola campus, Damilare Adenola, confirmed the incident via phone call on Sunday, saying, “Six students of the Nigerian Law School have been reportedly kidnapped by suspected armed bandits while travelling to resume school after their court externship break.”

He added, “Some missing students have been identified as Rev. Ernest Okafor, Ogbuka Fabian, Nwamma Philip, OkechukwuObadiegwu, Obalem Emmanuel, and Obiorah David.”

The group in an urgent message to Soludo and Orutugu, signed by NzeEmekaUmesgbalasi, Chairman, Board of Trustees of Intersociety, called on them to work with their colleagues in Benue and Taraba states to immediately and unconditionally set these students free to return to their school in Yola for their studies

The statement read in part, “The six abducted citizens are Anambra-born lawyers who are already lawyers having completed their mandatory five-year Law programmes at their respective universities and recently enrolled into another mandatory ‘One-Year’ Programme at the Nigerian Law School, Yola Branch in faraway Adamawa Branch in preparatory to be called to Bar and licensed to become legal practitioners in Nigeria or any part thereof including in Anambra State or Eastern Nigeria.

They were abducted by gunmen between Benue and Taraba boundaries. The latest, according to Punch Newspaper of today, Monday, July 28, 2025, is that their abductors are demanding for ransom of N120m (N20m each) for them to be freed.

“We are strongly demanding for their immediate and unconditional release. The Executive Governor of Anambra State, Prof. ChukwumaSoludo, is specifically called upon to rise to the occasion by joining forces with the Anambra State Commissioner of Police and those of Benue and Taraba States as well as his brother-governors of the two states and other relevant agencies and authorities to ensure their immediate and unconditional release and safe return to their Yola Branch of the Nigerian Law School.

“The above is more so when Anambra State cannot afford to lose such six young and brilliant Lawyers whose future values and importance to the State are very unquantifiable.”

The human rights group also called on the authorities of Nigerian Law School to wade in the matter by pressing on the Nigerian security agencies to rescue these young intending lawyers, adding that Nigeria and Anambra State in particular cannot afford to lose such young brilliant legal minds to agents of darkness in the country