Gunmen have abducted a 12-year-old schoolgirl in the Challenge area of Ibadan, Oyo State, prompting a swift response from the state police command.
The victim, a Junior Secondary School 2 pupil of Monarch Model College, was reportedly seized on Thursday morning while being dropped off at school.
Eyewitnesses said the assailants, who wore masks and arrived in an unmarked vehicle, allegedly trailed the girl and her mother before striking at a junction close to the school.
The attackers were said to have fired gunshots into the air to scare away passersby and punctured a tyre of the mother’s Toyota RAV4 with Lagos registration number KRD 350 GP.
The gunmen thereafter forcefully whisked the pupil away and fled through the Challenge axis.
The incident was reported at the Orita Challenge Police Station, following which officers visited the scene alongside the victim’s mother for an initial assessment.
Confirming the development on Thursday, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Olusola Olayinka Ayanlade, said the case was being treated as a suspected kidnapping.
He stated, “Preliminary information indicates that at about 7:20 a.m., a 12-year-old female student of a private secondary school in the area was allegedly abducted by unknown armed men at a junction leading to the school premises as she was alighting from the vehicle that conveyed her to school.”
According to him, detectives have been deployed to track down the perpetrators, while eyewitnesses are being interrogated to aid ongoing investigations.
The Commissioner of Police, CP Femi Haruna, has directed a thorough and intelligence-led investigation to secure the safe return of the child and ensure those responsible are apprehended.
The command appealed to residents to remain calm and volunteer credible information that could assist the police, assuring that all tips would be handled with strict confidentiality.
Further updates are expected as investigations continue.