By Masara Kim
(Jos) Time is running out. Emotions are running high, and 60-year-old Nicodemus Shantong is growing desperate. It’s been 24 hours since terrorists threatened to kill his son Paul, who was abducted Thursday (Aug. 15) along with his 19 fellow university students. But local authorities merely have attempted to calm frayed nerves while giving no updates on status of abducted members of the Federation of Catholic Medical and Dental Students Association. They were simply traveling to southeastern Enugu state for a church event when they were violently taken at gunpoint in central Benue State.
With a meager income of less than $2 a day from his job as a mechanic, Shantong can’t possibly come up with the $33,000 ransom demanded for the safe return of his son and his colleagues. Just 24 hours ago (on Saturday), he managed to speak with Paul, who told him that the kidnappers threatened to kill them if the ransom wasn’t paid by in 24 hours. Paul’s colleague held captive with him, had tweeted about the same threat.
“We were kidnapped on our way to Enugu for a convention,” wrote Kingsley Aondona on x. “They are demanding for 50 million for 20 of us medical students. please help us, and we haven’t eaten for two days,” he tweeted from captivity.
The students of the universities of Jos and Maiduguri were kidnapped along the Makurdi-Otupko highway in one of Nigeria’s most terrorized States.
As many as 2,600 people were killed in Benue State alone from January 2023 to February 2024, according to Amnesty International. Over the course of a year, jihadist terrorists looking to seize land and spread their extreme religious beliefs have wreaked havoc across 18 of the state’s 23 local government areas, slaughtering and kidnapping residents for ransom and sexual exploitation, reports Amnesty International.
Just five days before the students were kidnapped, more than 60 people were killed in Ukum County, an area known for being Nigeria’s largest yam exporter. The attack occurred in a predominantly Christian community late on August 9, adding to a troubling series of assaults targeting local Christians.
Catholic Student Leader Defies Threat
From his home 200 miles away in Jos, the capital of Plateau State, Paul Shantong, a sixth-year Obstetrics and Gynecology student at the University of Jos, heard about the Ukum attack on August 9th. He knew it was along the route he would have to take to get to the Students’ convention, but he decided to make the trip anyway. Despite struggling to raise $10 for transportation and registration, he was determined to attend, because he is the leader of the local branch of the Catholic Students Association at the university of Jos, TruthNigeria learned.
The day broke on August 15, and Paul waved goodbye to his friends and colleagues living with him in a student compound in the northern part of Jos. Despite the chilly weather with temperatures running at 50 degrees Fahrenheit, Paul’s face glowed with excitement as he joined a waiting bus carrying other members of his association from the University of Jos and Maiduguri at approximately 7 a.m.
Despite discussing the trip the previous night, his childhood friend and classmate, Mr. Vira Bemu, missed the departure. For Bemu the threat of kidnapping was palpable. The country’s highways have terror threats and accidents at every bend of the road, Bemu told TruthNigeria.
During his last conversation with Paul, he voiced his concerns but also prayed for his friend and the rest of the team making the trip.
But Paul’s twin brother, Peter Shantong, was having premonitions of disaster from 3,500 miles away in Santa Maria, Rome, where Peter was completing his training for the priesthood.
Peter couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. “I just had a bad feeling about the whole thing,” he confessed to TruthNigeria. Although he tried to dismiss his concerns for the sake of his twin brother’s enthusiasm, he found himself pacing back and forth in his small room, unable to focus on his studies.
At 2 p.m. in Benue, as the van passengers made their way down a particularly remote stretch of road on the Makurdi-Otupko highway,
armed men appeared out of nowhere, blocking the road. The terrorists swiftly boarded the bus, shouting orders and pointing rifle muzzles into the faces of the students. In less than a minute they were all marching into the dense forest at the edge of the highway.
In Rome at 2 p.m. Thursday Peter was serving Mass in the Basilica of Maria SS. Matter in the S. Maria at Vico (Caserta), unaware of the fate that had befallen his brother.
Bad News Trauma for Father
News of the kidnapping spread rapidly across Nigeria but did not reach the twins’ working-class parents living in Jos without internet.
“I was the one who informed them,” Peter said. “This has been the hardest moment in our family’s life,” he said, his voice heavy with emotion.
Their 60-year-old father, Nicodemus Shantong, spends his days working at his small mechanic shop to support his sons’ education and provide for the family. Hailing from Pankshin, a farming area in the central region of Plateau State, which has also suffered years of harassment from land-grabbing terrorists, Shantong’s income has recently dwindled due to widespread financial hardships that have sparked nationwide protests.
When the elder Shantong finally got the chance to speak with his son in captivity, the terrorists who called his phone delivered a chilling ultimatum. He demanded that he quickly raise a ransom of N50 million ($33,000) along with other affected families within 24 hours or risk losing his child. The weight of those words hung heavily in the air, and Nicodemus said he felt his heart sink.
“I have been traumatized since I heard those words from them,” Nicodemus confessed in a telephone interview with TruthNigeria, his voice trembling. “My fears have been compounded by the fact that the government authorities are telling us to give them time to investigate,” he said.
“The University Authorities have informed the Security Agencies appropriately and they have taken charge of the situation,” according to university spokesman Abdullahi Abdullahi.
“We’re closely monitoring the situation and fervently praying for a quick resolution,” said Abdullahi in a text to TruthNigeria.
But Shantong is growing impatient, despite the impossibility of raising such a large sum.
“All of us parents of the kidnapped students are poor,” he said. “We can’t pay that amount. But we have assigned someone to negotiate for us, and even though they have rejected our initial offer of N1 million ($700), we are still pleading for mercy while scrambling to find any way to raise the money.”
In the midst of this turmoil, the Benue State Governor, former Roman Catholic priest Hyacinth Alia, directed security agencies to intensify efforts to ensure the safe release of the hostages. “We will not rest until we stamp out criminality in our state,” he vowed in a public statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Kula Tersoo. However, as the clock continues to tick, the parents have remained anxious, knowing that time is not on their side.
Meanwhile, police in Benue have yet to record any breakthrough.
“I have not received any information from the team,” wrote Benue police spokeswoman, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Anene Sewuese.
Masara Kim is an award winning conflict reporter in Jos and the senior editor of TruthNigeria
