{"id":99736,"date":"2026-07-16T17:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=99736"},"modified":"2026-07-16T18:35:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:35:55","slug":"kogi-launches-massive-security-offensive-to-rescue-abducted-principal-neco-official-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=99736","title":{"rendered":"Kogi Launches Massive Security Offensive to Rescue Abducted Principal, NECO Official, Students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Kogi State Government has launched a massive multi-agency security operation to rescue four persons abducted by gunmen from Government Secondary School (GSS), Olowa, in Dekina Local Government Area during the ongoing National Examinations Council (NECO) examinations, as security agencies intensify a coordinated manhunt across forests and neighbouring communities.<\/p>\n<p>The operation, ordered by Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, has brought together personnel of the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services (DSS), the Kogi State Vigilante Service, local hunters and other security outfits in what officials described as an all-out effort to secure the victims&#8217; 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visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cEchoes of Trauma: The stories pain tells us\u201d \u2014 Everyday.ng\" src=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=99719&amp;embed=true#?secret=lUWHS5wGI8#?secret=b44UaZYnfr\" data-secret=\"b44UaZYnfr\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"DenGh1D5qi\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=99716\">IMO ASSEMBLY\u2019S CONSTITUTIONAL COMEDY \u2014 THE HOUSE THAT SLEPT THROUGH A JUDICIAL CRISIS WOKE UP TO READ SECTION 271 BACKWARDS<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cIMO ASSEMBLY\u2019S CONSTITUTIONAL COMEDY \u2014 THE HOUSE THAT SLEPT THROUGH A JUDICIAL CRISIS WOKE UP TO READ SECTION 271 BACKWARDS\u201d \u2014 Everyday.ng\" src=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=99716&amp;embed=true#?secret=lPqqLzUuXi#?secret=DenGh1D5qi\" data-secret=\"DenGh1D5qi\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The rescue mission is being coordinated by the State Security Adviser, Commander Jerry Omodara (Rtd), with the full participation of security and intelligence agencies operating across the state.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Kogi State Government, those still in captivity are the Principal of Government Secondary School, Olowa, Elder Daniel Iyanaa; a NECO official, Mr. Solomon Audu; Miss Dorcas Sunday, a NECO candidate; and another female NECO candidate identified simply as Miss Dorcas, whose surname has yet to be confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>The government disclosed that five persons were initially abducted during Tuesday&#8217;s attack, but one victim has since been rescued. Security agencies, it said, have intensified efforts to ensure the safe return of the remaining four captives. The Kogi State Police Command also confirmed that a joint search-and-rescue operation commenced immediately after the incident and that one abducted student had already regained freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, said troops from the 12 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Lokoja, and the 21 Battalion, Nigerian Army, Anyigba, have been deployed alongside police operatives, DSS personnel, the Kogi State Vigilante Service, local hunters and other security operatives to comb the affected area.<\/p>\n<p>He added that advanced technology is also being deployed to support the rescue operation, expressing optimism that ongoing intelligence-led efforts were already producing encouraging results.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the rescue operation, the state government revealed that preliminary investigations had raised questions about the examination centre where the attack occurred.<\/p>\n<p>According to the government, initial findings suggest that the examination centre, located in a remote and vulnerable community, was allegedly being used as a &#8220;miracle centre&#8221; for external candidates.<\/p>\n<p>It further disclosed that the two female candidates involved in the abduction were not regular students of Government Secondary School, Olowa, and that arrangements for conducting the examination allegedly fell outside the security framework earlier established by the state government for the ongoing NECO examinations.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the preliminary findings, the government stressed that the circumstances surrounding the examination centre would not diminish its constitutional responsibility to protect every resident and visitor within Kogi State.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The government remains fully committed to securing the safe rescue of all victims and ensuring that those responsible for this criminal attack are tracked down, arrested and prosecuted,&#8221; the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said no further operational details would be released to the public for now in order to avoid compromising the ongoing rescue mission.<\/p>\n<p>The government also appealed to residents of Olowa and neighbouring communities to support security agencies by volunteering credible information that could assist the operation while complying with all directives issued by security personnel.<\/p>\n<p>It assured the families of the abducted victims that the state would continue working closely with all relevant security agencies until those still in captivity are rescued unharmed and reunited with their loved ones.<\/p>\n<p>The abduction has heightened concerns over security around examination centres in vulnerable rural communities, particularly as candidates across the country continue to sit for the 2026 NECO Senior School Certificate Examination. Authorities say the ongoing operation remains focused on rescuing the victims safely while bringing the perpetrators to justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kogi State Government has launched a massive multi-agency security operation to rescue four persons abducted by gunmen from Government Secondary School (GSS), Olowa, in Dekina Local Government Area during the ongoing National Examinations Council (NECO) examinations, as security agencies intensify a coordinated manhunt across forests and neighbouring communities. The operation, ordered by Governor Ahmed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":63501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5807,7],"tags":[8533,8534,5732,8532],"class_list":["post-99736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-crime-and-violence","category-news","tag-examination","tag-miracle","tag-ododo","tag-olowa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99736"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99742,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99736\/revisions\/99742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}