Kidnappers demand N950m for 19 NYSC members abducted in Imo

Gunmen who hijacked two commercial buses in Imo State are demanding a N950 million ransom after kidnapping 19 prospective NYSC members heading to their orientation camps.

The young graduates were travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom when unknown gunmen ambushed them along the Owerri-Onitsha Road early Thursday morning.

The transport company, Uko Akwa Ibom Motors, through it Managing Director, Isiah Akpan, confirmed that 19 prospective NYSC members were kidnapped and that only the drivers narrowly escaped the ambush and alerted nearby military and police operatives.

Dawn Herald gathered that the kidnappers have since contacted the families, using the smartphones of the victims to make live video calls from the forest, to put pressure on the families, in order to meet their N50 million target for each victim.

According to a report by The PUNCH, a mother of the PCMs kidnapped, Mrs. Oladosu, said the kidnappers reached out via a video call using her daughter’s phone number:

“We saw her and other corps members sitting on the ground in the bush, crying…Where will petty traders get N50 million? They are just going to serve Nigeria, why this punishment?”, she said.

From the report, another parent, Mrs. Alimotu Akanke, revealed that her son managed to send a WhatsApp message reading “Kidnappers!” to their family group chat before his phone went offline.

The ill-fated buses originally left Ibadan on Wednesday but were delayed by heavy traffic and bad roads, forcing passengers to spend the night in Oba, Anambra State and resumed the trip at 5 a.m. on Thursday, only to run into gunmen after entering Imo State.

Meanwhile, the Imo State Police on Thursday night announced that they rescued 10 kidnapped victims during a search operation. However, the police spokesperson, Henry Okoye, could not confirm if those rescued were the missing corps members at the time this report was published.

The Oyo State Government has condemned the attack, through it State Information Commissioner Dotun Oyelade. He assured the public that Governor Seyi Makinde is working directly with security agencies, the Imo State Government, and the NYSC to secure their safe return.

Organizations, security experts and concerned Nigerians are calling on the Federal Government to review the NYSC deployment policy, warning that forcing young graduates to travel across hotspot states threatens the survival of the entire scheme.