Gunmen in Nigeria kidnap six students, three teachers in southwest

Armed gangs have been abducting villagers, road travellers and students in return for ransom, as Africa's most populous nation grapples with widespread insecurity, which also includes a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast. The Ekiti state government said in a statement the latest abduction took place when the students and teachers were returning from a local trip on Monday night.

Gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped six students and three teachers from a school in southwestern Ekiti state on Monday night, the state government said on Tuesday, in the country's first reported abduction involving school children this year. Armed gangs have been abducting villagers, road travellers and students in return for ransom, as Africa's most populous nation grapples with widespread insecurity, which also includes a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast.

The Ekiti state government said in a statement the latest abduction took place when the students and teachers were returning from a local trip on Monday night. The school bus driver was also taken. Security agencies in the state were on the trail of the abductors, the statement added.

No one has claimed responsibility or made ransom demands. President Bola Tinubu, whose focus has been reviving a struggling economy, is coming under increased scrutiny over a wave of abductions across Nigeria, including on the outskirts of the country's capital Abuja this month.

Main opposition leader Atiku Abubakar on Tuesday accused Tinubu of "playing fiddle while Nigeria is drowning in the ocean of insecurity," referring to the president undertaking a private visit to France for a week.