• At least 32 people kidnapped at train station in Nigeria’s Edo state.
• Armed men entered Igueben train station on Saturday, firing AK-47s into the air.
• Locals say several of those were able to escape from the kidnappers had bullet wounds.

At least 32 persons have been kidnapped at a train station in southern Nigeria’s Edo state, according to the authorities.

Station employees and people waiting for trains were among those who were abducted.

A search and rescue effort for the victims has been started by the security personnel with the assistance of neighborhood hunters.

Attacks in the nation are causing more people to worry. In the month leading up to a presidential election where security is a key campaign theme, the most recent incident occurred.

According to reports, a huge group of armed men entered the Igueben train station on Saturday, firing AK-47s into the air as they did so before grabbing passengers and employees and transporting them to a nearby woodland.

Eyewitnesses claim that several of those who were able to escape had bullet wounds. According to reports, another woman carrying a baby managed to get away and make her way to a nearby community, where she was found and saved.

The kidnappers also released two children as it was “believed that they felt the children will slow down their movements”, a local resident is quoted by the Vanguard newspaper as saying.

According to Chris Osa Nehikhare, a spokesman for the Edo state administration, many people have begun taking the train since the nearby road has turned into “a no-go area, with big ransoms being collected from families of [kidnap] victims.”

In Nigeria, incidents of kidnapping for ransom and gunmen attacking communities for political motives have increased recently.

Nine months after at least nine passengers perished in a gun attack on the train route, a significant rail service connecting the northern city of Kaduna with Abuja, the nation’s capital, restarted in December. The last hostage was freed in October after numerous others were taken hostage.

Before the federal elections in Nigeria in February, when a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari will be chosen, insecurity is one of the major campaign issues.

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