UI Law Student Tomisin Abducted Returning From Imo Scripture Union Conference — SUG Calls for Calm

What Has Been Confirmed

The Students' Union Government of the University of Ibadan has confirmed the abduction of a 300-level female law student, raising concern over the safety of travellers returning from religious and academic gatherings across Nigeria. 

The SUG President, Comrade Temidayo Adeboye, said Tomisin was reported to have travelled on a religious retreat alongside the National General Director of the Scripture Union Student Fellowship, Engr. Uwem Cosmos, and eight other participants. 

The Students' Union Government of the University of Ibadan has explained how a 300-level female law student of the institution simply identified as Tomisin was abducted alongside seven others while returning from the Scripture Union Student Fellowship National Conference held at the Camp of Faith, Okigwe, Imo State. 

The Okigwe–Ibadan road has long been one of the most dangerous travel corridors in southern Nigeria. The kidnapping happened on a Saturday. It was not made public for several days — and the silence was not broken by an official alert but by a missed examination.

The Student: A Leader in the Faith Community

Tomisin serves as the National Secretary of the Scripture Union Student Fellowship, Nigeria, and is also the Vice-President of the Scripture Union, University of Ibadan chapter. 

This is not a student who had travelled impulsively. Tomisin was at Okigwe in an official leadership capacity — representing the national body of one of Nigeria's oldest and most respected student Christian organisations. She had responsibilities at that conference. She had people around her. She was travelling back in the company of the National General Director of the fellowship itself, Engr. Uwem Cosmos — and it was his vehicle, along with the others travelling with him, that was targeted.

Further reports revealed that another University of Ibadan student from the Department of Music, who also attended the conference, returned safely. However, the vehicle conveying the General Director remained unaccounted for. 

That detail is significant and needs unpacking. Of the UI students who made the journey from Ibadan to the Okigwe conference, at least two are confirmed to have been present. The Music student came back. Tomisin did not. The difference was which vehicle they were in. The vehicle carrying the General Director — the most senior official of the fellowship present — was the one targeted. That is not a random roadside interception. That suggests the attackers had at minimum an awareness of the convoy's composition.

How the Alarm Was Raised: Missed Examinations

Adeboye also noted that the student's disappearance became more concerning after she failed to appear for scheduled examinations earlier in the week, prompting internal checks and confirmation efforts. 

This is one of the most painful details in the entire account. Tomisin was abducted on a Saturday. She had examinations during the week. She did not appear for those examinations. And it was the failure to appear for examinations — not an alert from the security agencies or the Scripture Union leadership, not a welfare check by the university — that first caused the University of Ibadan community to formally ask where she was.

The gap between the day of the abduction and the day the university's own students' union issued a public statement is a window of several days. What happened in that window — what efforts were underway, who was informed, what security agencies were contacted, and why the public was not told earlier — are questions that deserve direct answers from the Scripture Union Student Fellowship's national leadership, from the university's administration, and from the relevant police commands in Imo State.

The University's Position: Aware, But Not Informed

The University of Ibadan has also confirmed awareness of the situation through its Director of Public Relations, Mrs Joke Akinpelu.

UI Director of Public Relations, Mrs Joke Akinpelu, confirmed that the institution was aware of the incident, but was not informed about the trip. According to her, the incident occurred on Saturday, adding that she was the only UI student abducted, contrary to viral reports that eight UI students were abducted. 

The university's position — that it was not informed about the trip beforehand — is factually relevant but practically uncomfortable. Nigerian universities routinely require students to obtain official permission for off-campus travel, particularly to events in other states. The question of whether Tomisin obtained such permission, whether the Scripture Union chapter notified the student affairs office, and whether those requirements are actually enforced or merely nominal is one that the university's administration will need to address directly.

The more immediate question is not about procedures. It is about a 300-level student who has been missing since Saturday and who is somewhere in the South-East with seven other people, including a senior national officer of the fellowship she serves.

Correcting the Misinformation: One Student, Not Eight

The SUG President, Mr Temidayo Adeboye, in a statement issued in Ibadan on Friday, said Tomisin was travelling with the National General Director of the Scripture Union Student Fellowship, Mr Uwem Cosmos and other participants when she was abducted. The SUG president further revealed that the union has initiated the necessary engagements to ascertain the facts surrounding the situation and has established contact with relevant religious organisations and security agencies to facilitate appropriate intervention. "We wish to clarify that reports claiming that eight UI students are missing are inaccurate. Tomisin is the only University of Ibadan student currently unaccounted for in the incident," he said. 

The clarification is important and the SUG is right to make it — misinformation about the number of victims can mislead security operations, mislead the public, and cause unnecessary panic among families of students who were never involved. But in correcting the count from eight UI students to one, the statement must not be read as minimising the gravity of the situation. One student abducted is one too many. The seven other victims who were taken alongside Tomisin — including the National General Director of a major student fellowship — are human beings whose safety is equally urgent.

The total number kidnapped in this incident appears to be eight people — seven people travelling with the General Director, including Tomisin, plus potentially the General Director himself in the same or accompanying vehicle. The precise breakdown of how many are from UI, how many are from other institutions, and what the current status of each victim is has not been fully published.

The SUG's Response: Engagements Initiated

The SUG President, Comrade Temidayo Adeboye, said the union has initiated the necessary engagements to ascertain the facts surrounding the situation and has established contact with relevant religious organisations and security agencies to facilitate appropriate intervention.

The Dean of Student Affairs, Dr Ademola Lewis, also confirmed the abduction, stating that the university was aware of the incident, although the institution had not been informed beforehand about the trip. 

Two separate institutional voices — the students' union and the university administration — have both confirmed the situation is real. Security agencies have been contacted. Religious organisations connected to the Scripture Union are being engaged. What is not yet confirmed is which specific security agencies have been formally notified, whether a police report has been filed in Imo State, and whether the Department of State Services or the military — both of which have operational presence in the South-East — have been brought into the response.

The Broader Context: Kidnappings on South-East Roads

The abduction of Tomisin and her fellow travellers is not an isolated incident in a peaceful region. It is the latest in a pattern of kidnappings that have made road travel in the South-East of Nigeria — and particularly in Imo State and the surrounding areas — genuinely dangerous for ordinary Nigerians, including students, church workers, traders, and anyone who must travel by road between the region's cities.

This is also not the first time religious conference participants have been targeted on South-East highways. The organised pattern of abductions in the region — in which vehicles carrying visible groups of travellers, often returning from events at night or on weekends when security presence is thinner — has been a persistent security challenge that the federal and state governments have not fully resolved despite multiple military and police operations in the region.

The same week the ESN armoury raids in Enugu were announced — with rocket launchers and military-grade weapons seized — Tomisin was taken. These are separate incidents but they are part of the same security landscape.

What Must Happen Now

The immediate priority is Tomisin's safe return, alongside the safe return of Engr. Uwem Cosmos and every other person taken in the same abduction. Security agencies operating in the South-East — the Imo State Police Command, the DSS, the military units operating under Operation Udo Ka and Operation Udoka — need to be treating this as an active case with urgency proportionate to the vulnerability of the victims.

The Scripture Union Student Fellowship's national leadership needs to make a full public statement — not only about what is being done to secure the safe return of its National General Director and the students travelling with him, but about what happened in the days between the Saturday abduction and today's public confirmation. The silence in that window is a question that the families of the victims and the student community deserve an answer to.

The University of Ibadan needs to ensure that whatever obligations it has to this student — institutional support, family liaison, engagement with security agencies on her behalf — are being actively fulfilled, regardless of whether she notified the university before the trip.

And for every Nigerian student and every organisation that coordinates interstate travel for student groups: the risk on South-East roads is real, it is current, and it requires explicit security planning before any group travels through the region — including communications protocols for reporting the group's progress, coordination with security agencies for high-risk routes, and clear emergency contact procedures.

Tomisin left Ibadan in service of a fellowship she leads and loves. She deserves to come home.

Sources

1. P.M. News — "UI Law student, 7 others abducted while returning from Scripture Union Conference" (June 19, 2026)
   https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2026/06/19/ui-law-student-7-others-abducted-while-returning-from-scripture-union-conference/
2. Prompt News Online — "UI SUG confirms abduction of 300-level female law student" (June 19, 2026)
   https://promptnewsonline.com/ui-sug-confirms-abduction-of-300-level-female-law-student/
3. Blueprint Newspapers — "UI speaks on 'abduction of 300-level law student'" (June 19, 2026)
   https://blueprint.ng/ui-speaks-on-abduction-of-300-level-law-student/
4. The Nigerian Eye — "University of Ibadan confirms abduction of female student" (June 19, 2026)
   https://www.nigerianeye.com/2026/06/university-of-ibadan-confirms-abduction.html