The Imo State Police Command has identified the location where 19 prospective National Youth Service Corps members abducted in the state are being held, but security operatives have delayed moving into the camp over fears that it is planted with improvised explosive devices.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Audu Garba Bosso, disclosed this on Saturday in a media interview while giving an update on the search-and-rescue operation.
Bosso said the police used drones on Friday to locate the suspected camp after security operatives trailed the abductors into the bush.
He, however, said the security agencies were being cautious because intelligence indicated that the camp had been mined with IEDs.
“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.
Bosso said the security agencies were preparing to move into the area with heavy equipment, including bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers, in an effort to rescue the victims safely.
“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 development comes two days after gunmen abducted prospective corps members travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The victims were 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 told Saturday PUNCH that the abductors took 19 passengers, all prospective corps members, into the bush.
He said 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, amounting to N950m, with some families contacted through the phones of their abducted relatives.
One of the victims’ mothers, Mrs Oladosu, had told Saturday PUNCH that the abductors contacted her family through her daughter’s phone and that the family saw some of the victims during a video call.
The Imo State Police Command had earlier said 10 victims were rescued, although its spokesperson, Henry Okoye, could not confirm whether the rescued persons were among the abducted prospective corps members.
The latest development indicates that security operatives have narrowed down the location of the remaining victims as efforts continue to secure their release. Punch
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