Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has been thrown into mourning following the death of a young staff member, Mr Orseer Nyagu, who was abducted along the Agagbe‑Naka road in Gwer West Local Government Area and killed while attempting to escape from his captors. Nyagu was kidnapped alongside two other travellers while returning to Naka, the administrative headquarters of Gwer West LGA, in an attack that has once again exposed the vulnerability of commuters on rural roads in the state.
The incident occurred on an unnamed date when gunmen suspected to be armed herdsmen waylaid the travellers. According to multiple accounts, the three victims were held in captivity for about two days before the kidnappers contacted their families. The abductors initially demanded a ransom of N15 million for the release of the three captives. After negotiations, the ransom was reduced to N500,000, an amount the family of Orseer Nyagu worked desperately to raise. However, before the payment could be completed, the 27‑year‑old SUBEB staff member made a fateful decision: he attempted to escape on his own.
According to family sources cited in numerous local reports, Nyagu was killed during the escape attempt. “He was shot while trying to flee from the kidnappers’ den,” a source close to the family told journalists. The two other victims who remained in captivity were later released by their abductors and have since been reunited with their families.
Orseer Nyagu had only recently secured employment with SUBEB and was described by colleagues and friends as a promising young man. In a tribute that has been shared widely on social media, a relative and colleague, Ukan Kurugh, lamented the worsening insecurity in the state. He described the deceased as the son of his former primary school teacher and called for urgent action to address the rising wave of kidnappings and violence on rural roads. “This is really affecting us day by day; tomorrow it could be me or you,” Kurugh wrote.
The Agagbe‑Naka road has become a flashpoint for armed attacks on commuters. Just days before Nyagu’s abduction, suspected armed herdsmen reportedly attacked commuters along the same road near Agbanu village, abducting a woman and injuring several others. The road, which serves as a critical artery connecting several rural communities to Naka, is notoriously isolated, with long stretches of bush and very few security posts. In the absence of rapid response teams, travellers along the route have been left to fend for themselves, and many now travel only in large convoys or avoid the road altogether after dusk.
The Benue State Police Command has not yet issued an official statement on the abduction and killing of Orseer Nyagu. Efforts by multiple news outlets to reach the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Udeme Edet, were unsuccessful as at the time of this report.
The death of Orseer Nyagu has triggered a fresh wave of outrage and calls for enhanced security measures in Gwer West and other local government areas that share borders with the vast forests that have become hideouts for armed gangs. Community leaders in Naka have appealed to the state and federal governments to deploy more security personnel along the Agagbe‑Naka road and to reopen police posts that were abandoned years ago. Meanwhile, colleagues of the deceased have announced plans to hold a candlelight procession in his honour.
For the family of Orseer Nyagu, the tragedy is compounded by the cruelty of its timing. They had almost raised the money to buy his freedom; they had negotiated the ransom down from a staggering N15 million to N500,000, a sum that still stretched their limited means. They had even, according to some reports, paid a portion of it. But in the end, it was the desperate act of a young man who could not wait any longer that sealed his fate. As the remaining two victims walked free, his grieving relatives were left to bury a son who had only just begun to build his future.
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