The Imo State Police Command has discovered the location where 19 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members abducted in the state are being held but has yet to move in because of fears that explosives may have been planted around the hideout.
The Commissioner of Police, Audu Garba Bosso, disclosed this on Saturday, saying security operatives used drones to locate the suspected camp after tracking the kidnappers into the bush.
Recall Dockaysworld reported that the kidnappers had sought N950 million ransom for the release of the 19 victims, demanding N50 million for each of them. The prospective corps members were abducted while travelling from Ibadan to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
Bosso said security agencies were being cautious because intelligence indicated that the camp had been mined with improvised explosive devices. He said operatives were preparing to enter the area with heavy equipment, including bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers.
“Any moment, we’ll still move into the bush. 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.
“But our predicament is that with the intel we have, the IED is—the camp is mined with IEDs,” the commissioner said.
“We are moving in there with high, you know, 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,” he added.
The 19 prospective corps members were abducted on Thursday when gunmen attacked two buses along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in the Umunoha area of Imo State. Police had earlier said 10 victims were rescued, although the command’s spokesperson, Henry Okoye, could not confirm whether those rescued were among the abducted corps members.
