<p>LAGOS, Nigeria &mdash; Fourteen university students and staff abducted from their school in northwestern Nigeria were released Saturday after spending more than a month in captivity.</p>
<p>Gunmen abducted the students and staff from Greenfield University in Kaduna state on April 20. Authorities have said that one person was killed during the kidnappings.</p>
<p>Kaduna State commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan said in a statement that the hostages were found released along the Kaduna-Abuja road.</p>
<p>The gunmen had demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom and had killed five other students to pressure the remaining students’ parents to raise the money.</p>
<p>Aruwan did not say whether any ransom was paid, but local newspaper reports had previously quoted some of the parents as saying that a ransom was being negotiated with the gunmen. </p>
<p>The incident is the latest in a chain of mass abductions of students from Nigerian schools. Many schools have been forced to close due to frequent incidents of gunmen attacking schools to abduct students. </p>