By Clement Abayomi
Not less than seven people kidnapped while travelling from Makurdi to Otukpo have been reportedly rescued by security agencies, and they have been confirmed not to be candidates of the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as earlier reported.
The clarification came from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board on April 18, 2026, through its spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, in a statement shared on X.
Benjamin explained that the victims were wrongly identified in early reports as students going to sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination. He said the claim has now been proven false after proper checks.
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He stated that the victims were actually people who had travelled to Makurdi for a police recruitment exercise and were returning to Otukpo when the incident happened.
He said, “Notably, none of the victims were UTME candidates. Rather, they were individuals who had traveled to Makurdi to participate in the ongoing police recruitment exercise and were returning to Otukpo at the time of the incident.”
Benjamin maintained that the rescue operation by security agencies brought relief, as many people had feared for the safety of those involved.
He criticised the spread of unverified information, noting that some people quickly blamed JAMB without confirming facts.
He said such actions can damage the image of public institutions unfairly.
He said, “It is regrettable that, in moments like this, there is a tendency to hastily malign government institutions particularly the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) without proper verification of facts.
Such premature conclusions appear, at times, to be driven more by a desire to assign blame than to seek truth.
Some individuals even attempted to link the incident to the Board’s examination schedule, despite clear inconsistencies in that narrative.”
He explained that some reports ignored the structure of the UTME, which makes it unlikely for candidates to travel together to the same centre.
He also called on those who shared the wrong information to apologise to the Board for the harm caused to its reputation.
Benjamin stressed that kidnapping remains a serious issue, no matter who the victims are.
He expressed hope that Nigeria’s security system will continue to improve to prevent such incidents in the future.
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