Police locate camp holding abducted NYSC recruits but delay assault over IED fears

Police in Imo State have located the suspected camp where 19 prospective National Youth Service Corps members abducted during a journey to orientation camps are being held, but security agencies have delayed entering the site because of reported improvised explosive devices. Commissioner of Police Audu Garba Bosso said drones located the camp on Friday after operatives trailed the abductors into bushland. He said intelligence indicated that the area had been mined, making an immediate assault dangerous for both security personnel and the victims.

Bosso said security agencies were preparing to enter the area using heavy equipment, including bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers. The aim, he said, was to rescue the victims without causing further harm. The prospective corps members were travelling in two buses from Ibadan, Oyo State, to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom when gunmen attacked along the Owerri-Onitsha Road near Umunoha on Thursday.

The drivers reportedly escaped and alerted security personnel at a nearby checkpoint. The Managing Director of Uko Akwa Ibom Motors, Isiah Akpan, said 19 passengers were taken into the bush. Reports in the source material said the abductors demanded N50m for each victim, although the police update focused on the rescue operation.

The Imo command previously said 10 people had been rescued, but its spokesman, Henry Okoye, could not confirm whether those people were among the abducted prospective corps members. Bosso’s latest statement indicated that security agencies had narrowed the search to the suspected camp and were proceeding cautiously.