Security operative in Imo state have located the suspected camp where 19 prospective National Youth Service Corps members abducted in Imo State are being held, but have delayed raiding the camp over intelligence that the hideout may have been planted with improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Imo State Commissioner of Police, CP Audu Garba Bosso, disclosed this on Saturday while giving an update on the search-and-rescue operation, saying security agencies were preparing to move into the area with specialised equipment to secure the safe release of the victims.
According to him, security operatives trailed the abductors into the bush on Friday and deployed drones, which helped to establish the location of the suspected camp.
He said the operation had to be carefully planned because intelligence indicated that the area had been mined with explosives.
“Yesterday, we were in the bush, we trailed them up to a particular location. But at that point in time, we couldn’t move in to where the coordinate showed us where they are because we ran drones yesterday. And the drone actually showed us exactly their location.
“We are moving in there with high-velocity vehicles, that is, bulldozers. We’re moving in with bulldozers and APCs to see how we’re going to rescue these victims unhurt,” Bosso said.
The development came two days after gunmen abducted the prospective corps members who were travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states respectively..
The victims were reportedly travelling in two buses when the attackers struck along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in the Umunoha area of Imo State on Thursday.
The Managing Director of Uko Akwa Ibom Motors Nigeria Limited, Isiah Akpan, had said 19 passengers, all prospective corps members, were taken into the bush after the attack.
According to him, the drivers escaped and alerted security personnel at a nearby checkpoint, prompting security agencies to commence a search of the area.
The abductors have reportedly demanded N50m for each of the 19 victims, translating to N950m in total, with some families said to have been contacted through the phones of their abducted relatives.
A mother of one of the victims, Mrs Oladosu, had also said the abductors contacted her family using her daughter’s phone and that the family was able to see some of the victims during a video call.
The police had earlier announced that 10 victims were rescued, although the Imo police command’s Police public relations officer, Henry Okoye, could not immediately confirm whether those rescued were among the abducted prospective corps members.
