Six students and three teachers were taken by armed men from a school in Ekiti state in southwest Nigeria last night, the state government announced today, in the first kidnapping of school children this year in the country.

As Africa’s most populous nation faces widespread insecurity, which also involves a long-lasting Islamist rebellion in the northeast, armed groups have been seizing villagers, travellers and students for ransom.

The state government said in a statement that the students and teachers were abducted when they were coming back from a local trip last night. The driver of the school bus was also captured.

The statement said that security forces in the state were pursuing the kidnappers.

The kidnappers have not identified themselves or asked for ransom.

President Bola Tinubu, who has been concentrating on boosting a weak economy, is facing more criticism over a series of kidnappings across Nigeria, including near the country’s capital Abuja this month.

Atiku Abubakar, the main opposition leader, today blamed Tinubu for “playing music while Nigeria is sinking in the sea of insecurity,” pointing to the president’s private trip to France for a week.