The management of Nasarawa State University, Keffi, NSUK, has commended the Department of State Services, DSS, for rescuing its Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Professor Samuel Okunsebor, nearly 39 hours after he was abducted by armed men along a notorious kidnap corridor in the state.
Professor Okunsebor was seized shortly after midnight on Wednesday at Mile Uku, a boundary community between Lafia and Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Areas.
He was freed by DSS operatives at about 3 p.m. on Friday and formally handed over to his family at a brief ceremony attended by the university’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kitso Ngbargu. The don was thereafter driven to the Federal University of Lafia Teaching Hospital for medical evaluation.
A top university official said the institution was “greatly indebted to the DSS for working round the clock to ensure the timely rescue of our amiable dean.”
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He added: “We understand that the DSS have in their custody two of the persons, a man and a lady, behind the kidnap of our dear Professor. Given how the DSS has been meticulously prosecuting suspects in courts, we have little doubt that both suspects will soon have their day in court.”
The abduction is the latest in a widening string of kidnappings that has turned parts of Nasarawa State — once considered a relatively peaceful buffer around the Federal Capital Territory — into a hotspot for ransom syndicates.
NSUK alone has recorded multiple attacks in recent years, including the seizure of six students from its Gudi campus earlier this year and a 2023 raid on a private hostel in Angwan Kare.
Security trackers place Nasarawa consistently among the North-Central zone’s worst-hit states. Nationally, nearly 4,722 people were reportedly kidnapped between July 2024 and June 2025, with the Lafia–Nasarawa Eggon–Akwanga axis emerging as a key operational corridor for armed gangs exploiting forested terrain to hold victims for ransom.
For a state where victims’ families often bear crushing ransom demands, the swift, ransom-free rescue of Professor Okunsebor is being hailed as a rare institutional win.
The two suspects are expected to be arraigned in the coming days as the university presses for sustained security operations along the volatile Lafia-Eggon corridor.
Crediblenewsng.com
