Twenty prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members kidnapped along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Imo State have regained their freedom, 6 days after gunmen seized them.
The victims, who were travelling from Oyo State to NYSC orientation camps in the South-East and South-South, are now being treated at the Department of State Services (DSS) Hospital in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
NYSC Director-General Brigadier-General Olakunle Oluseye Nafiu visited the hospital to see the victims and assess their condition, Punch reported. He was accompanied by the Imo State Commissioner of Police, the Director of the DSS and the Commander of the 34 Artillery Brigade in the state. Nafiu also addressed the victims during the visit.
The Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, announced the release in a statement by his media aide, Adeola Oloko. The monarch said Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma told him of it in a telephone call at about 5pm on Wednesday.
The graduates were travelling from Ibadan on Thursday, October 1st, when gunmen attacked the two buses carrying them near Umunoha, in Mbaitoli Local Government Area, at about 6:30am. Police spokesperson DSP Henry Okoye confirmed the attack that day. He said the buses were headed for Uyo, in Akwa Ibom, and Bende, in Abia.
How the victims were freed remains unclear. Vanguard reported that a joint operation by the military, the DSS and the police rescued them. The circumstances of the final release had not been publicly detailed and no arrest had been confirmed.
Families had been anxious since the attack. A mother of one of the victims told of losing contact with her child at about 4:30am on the day and pleaded with the government and security agencies for help.
As the search continued, Inspector-General of Police Olatunji Disu sent Deputy Inspector-General in charge of Operations Shehu Umar Nadada and two commissioners of police to Imo to strengthen the effort.
The incident came about five weeks after another abduction of corps members in Kogi State. On August 31st, President Bola Tinubu announced that 15 corps members and six other people had been rescued from a forest in Ofu Local Government Area.