A rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), has demanded the immediate and unconditional release of six students of the Nigerian Law School abducted by suspected gunmen while travelling from Onitsha, Anambra State, to Yola, Adamawa State, at the weekend.

It called on the Anambra State Governor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, to join forces with the Anambra State Commissioner of Police and those of Benue and Taraba States, as well as the governors of the two states, to ensure their unconditional release and safe return to their Yola branch of the Nigerian Law School.

The Anambra State-born law students, whose names were given as Rev. Ernest Okafor, Ogbuka Fabian, Nwamma Philip, Okechukwu Obadiegwu, Obalem Emmanuel, and Obiorah David, had completed their mandatory five-year law programs and recently enrolled on another mandatory one-year programme at the Nigerian Law School in Yola.

They were said to be travelling to Yola from Onitsha to resume their program when they were reportedly abducted between the Benue and Taraba boundaries.

Intersociety, in a statement by the Chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi, stated that the immediate release of the young lawyers had become necessary because “Anambra State cannot afford to lose such six young and brilliant lawyers whose future values and importance to the state are very unquantifiable.”

The group also drew the attention of the Commissioner of Police, Anambra State, Ikioye Orutugu, and Special Adviser to the Anambra Governor on Community Security, Ken Emeakai, to a looming inter-communal violence between Uli community, Ihiala Local Government Area, Anambra State, and the Egbuoma community, Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State, over the arrest of Kosarachi Ohajuba by operatives of Uli Central Vigilante.

It stated that they must immediately investigate leaders and some operatives of the Uli Central Vigilante Group for alleged mass murder and other violent criminal activities in the area.

Intersociety stated that Ohajuba, a native of Egbuoma, Imo State, had been held by the vigilante group since June 20, 2025, with an alleged ransom tag of N2m placed on his head.

It stated that it had notified Governor Chukwuma Soludo in a petition last week of the fact that members of the victim community (Egbuoma Autonomous Community) are furiously running out of patience, having endured and lived with unprovoked attacks and humiliations since 2022.

“The letter was titled: Calling For Thorough Investigation, Arrest, And Prosecution Of Leaders And Other Operatives Of Uli Central Vigilante Group” and their disbandment for incessantly crossing boundaries and invading Egbuoma Community in Oguta (Imo State), and allegedly killing more than ten indigenes since 2022 and perpetrating other atrocious conducts including indiscriminate arrests and unlawful detentions.”

Intersociety stated that it attached a catalogue of heinous activities of the security outfit, including names of ten slain indigenes of the victim community in Oguta in faraway Imo State of Nigeria.

It named those reportedly killed since 2022 as Chijioke Mgbeobu, Sunday Onyebuchi, Livinus Mmuo, Ikechi Obiejemba, Uchenna Ahize, Happiness Okorie, Stainless Ogunji, Onyebuchi Okorie, Chidi Ohanyele, and Nwute, as well as other abductions.

The group said that those killed recently in Umualaoma and Arondizuogu villages of Ndi-Ejezie and Ndi-Akunwanta-Uno in the Ideato North part of Imo State were killed by jihadist Fulani herdsmen fleeing Anambra forests and called for a manhunt of the killers.