Twenty potential members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and one other person kidnapped along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Imo State have been rescued.
After a concerted effort by security services, the victims were saved from the Amakohia-Ubi woodland in the state’s Owerri West Local Government Area.
Since then, they have been transported to the Department of State Services (DSS) Hospital in Owerri, where they are getting medical care and going through the required examinations.
Brigadier General Olakunle Oluseye Nafiu, the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, is currently speaking to the rescued victims at the DSS Clinic in Owerri.
He’s in the company of the Imo State Commissioner of Police, Director DSS, and Brigade Commander, 34 Artillery, Imo State.
Details of the operation, including whether any arrests were made or ransom was paid, have not yet been made public.
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However, in a statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, Ani Iniedu, the police said, “Efforts are ongoing to apprehend those responsible for the abduction, as the Police and other security agencies sustain coordinated operations towards bringing all culpable persons to justice.”
The victims were abducted on October 1 while travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The two buses conveying the prospective corps members came under attack near Umunoha in the Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State.
Following the abduction, security agencies launched a coordinated search-and-rescue operation to locate the victims and their abductors.
The Imo State Police Command later said its operatives had located the kidnappers’ camp through drone surveillance but were unable to immediately enter the location because it was reportedly mined with improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The police subsequently deployed additional operational assets, including bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers, as efforts intensified to reach the victims.
The development also triggered anxiety among the victims’ families after reports that the abductors were demanding ₦50 million for each victim.
Police had earlier confirmed that 10 victims were rescued following the attack, while efforts continued to locate the remaining abductees.
