According to the governor’s office, assault rifle-wielding criminals have taken 32 people hostage from a railway station in Nigeria’s southern Edo state.
As passengers waited for a train to Warri, an oil hub in the nearby Delta state, at 4 p.m. (GMT) on Sunday, armed herdsmen attacked Tom Ikimi station.
The station is close to the Anambra state border and is about 111 kilometers (69 miles) northeast of Benin City, the state capital.
Police said that the attack resulted in the shooting of some station employees.
The attack is the most recent manifestation of the increasing level of unrest that has engulfed nearly every nook and cranny of Africa’s most populous nation, posing a threat to the government ahead of the February election for president.
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According to Chris Osa Nehikhare, the information commissioner for the state of Edo, one of the 32 people kidnapped managed to escape.
He stated, “At the moment, security personnel comprised of the military, police, vigilante network men, and hunters are intensifying search and rescue operations in a reasonable radius to rescue the kidnap victims.”
We are hopeful that the remaining victims will be rescued soon.
The federal transportation ministry described the kidnappings as “utterly barbaric,” and the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) had temporarily closed the station.
Months after attackers blew up the tracks, kidnapped more than 150 passengers, and killed six, the NRC reopened a rail service that connected Abuja, the capital, with northern Kaduna state.
In that March attack, the final hostage was not released until October.
Boko Haram and its ISIL (ISIS)-affiliated offshoots in the northeast, banditry in the northwest, separatists in the southeast, and farmer-herdsmen clashes in the central states are all contributing to an increase in insecurity throughout Nigeria.
