The Oyo State Police Command has confirmed the abduction of a 12-year-old schoolgirl in the Challenge area of Ibadan, describing the incident as a suspected kidnapping and assuring residents that efforts are underway to secure her safe rescue.
The victim, a Junior Secondary School 2 pupil of Monarch Model College, was reportedly taken in the early hours of Thursday while being dropped off at school.
Eyewitnesses said masked men in an unmarked vehicle trailed the girl’s mother before striking at a junction near the school. The assailants, said to be armed, allegedly fired shots into the air to disperse bystanders and punctured the tyre of the mother’s Toyota RAV4 (Lagos registration KRD 350 GP).
Despite attempts to resist, the girl was forcibly taken away as the attackers sped off through the Challenge axis.
The incident was immediately reported at the Orita Challenge Police Station. Officers visited the scene alongside the victim’s mother for a preliminary assessment.
Confirming the development, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Olusola Olayinka Ayanlade, said: “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 a vehicle that conveyed her to school.”
He added that detectives were promptly deployed to the area and eyewitnesses questioned to generate leads for the ongoing investigation, while the victim’s parents are cooperating with security operatives.
The Commissioner of Police, CP Femi Haruna, has ordered a comprehensive, intelligence-led investigation to ensure the safe rescue of the child and the arrest of those responsible.
The command urged residents to remain calm and share any useful information with the authorities, assuring that all tips would be treated with strict confidentiality.