Armed gangs have been abducting villagers, road travellers, and students in return for ransom as Africa’s most populous nation grapples with widespread insecurity, which also includes a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast.

The Ekiti state government said in a statement that the latest abduction took place when the students and teachers were returning from a local trip last night. The school’s bus driver was also taken.

Security agencies in the state were on the trail of the abductors, the statement added.

No one has claimed responsibility or made ransom demands.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose focus has been reviving a struggling economy, is coming under increased scrutiny over a wave of abductions across Nigeria, including on the outskirts of the country’s capital Abuja this month.

Main opposition leader Atiku Abubakar today accused Tinubu of “playing fiddle while Nigeria is drowning in the ocean of insecurity,” referring to the president undertaking a private visit to France for a week.