Rita Enemuru, Reporting
DETAILS of how no fewer than 20 National Youth Service Corps members and other travellers were abducted on Thursday morning along the Owerri-Onitsha expressway near Umunoha in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State have emerged.
According to local sources, the gunmen began firing into the air at about 5am and continued for roughly half an hour before seizing the victims at around 6am. Two eighteen-seater buses were hijacked.
The passengers included prospective corps members travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to orientation camps in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, and Umuahia, Abia State.
Army checkpoint ‘a stone’s throw away’
A resident of the area, speaking through a relative, said the attack took place in his home town of Umunoha, close to an Army checkpoint. Despite this, the gunmen were able to shoot for about an hour and complete the abduction.
“The police did not rescue anybody. Those they claimed to have rescued were the ones who escaped on their own,” the source said. “The police were afraid to enter the bush. It was the youths who gave chase, but they could not get close because of the sophisticated weapons the gunmen were carrying.”
This account contradicts the official police statement. Henry Okoye, spokesman for the Imo State Police Command, said officers and sister security agencies responded “swiftly” and “rescued ten victims at the scene”, recovering both buses.
Mother’s account: last message was ‘Kidnappers!’
One victim’s mother, Alimotu Akanke, described the events on social media. Her son, Akande Faruq, was due to travel to Abia State. The vehicle left Samonda on Wednesday morning and stopped overnight after Onitsha.
“We had been tracking their location,” she said. “But at about 4.30am the bus started moving again. Then we received a short message: ‘Kidnappers!’ After that, we could not reach them again.”
She said her son’s twin brother, who was travelling to Enugu, filmed a video showing their bags still inside the vehicle, confirming it had been hijacked.
Police response
The Imo State Police Command confirmed the abduction, saying it occurred at about 6.30am when two buses carrying corps members and other passengers were attacked near Umunoha by suspected armed men.
The Commissioner of Police, Odu Bosso, and other security commanders visited the scene. Police said tactical teams and operational assets had been deployed, with intelligence-led tracking and a bush search under way to locate the kidnappers and rescue the remaining victims.
The command urged the public to remain calm and pledged that the operation would continue until all victims were safely rescued and the suspects brought to justice.
Worsening security situation
The incident occurred on Nigeria’s Independence Day. It follows a similar abduction weeks earlier in Kogi State, where fifteen corps members and six other passengers were seized along the Aloma-Egane highway and later rescued from the Egueme forest during a security operation.
The repeated targeting of corps members on the highways has raised serious concerns about safety on Nigeria’s major roads and about the protection of corps members undertaking long-distance travel.
