Imo CP
OpenLife News reports that Imo State Commissioner of Police, Audu Garba Bosso, has disclosed that the police have located the hideout where suspected kidnappers are holding abducted National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and other travellers.
Bosso said security operatives deployed drones to trail the abductors and successfully identified their exact location in the bush, but the rescue operation was delayed because intelligence shows the camp is heavily mined with improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Speaking to journalists on the ongoing operation, the CP said security forces had already stormed the forest and were working to safely reach the victims.
“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 coordinates showed us where they are,” Bosso said.
According to him, while drones gave operatives the precise coordinates of the kidnappers’ camp, the IEDs planted around it pose a major threat.
“But our predicament is that with the intel we have, the camp is mined with IEDs,” he said.
He disclosed that the command is now mobilising heavy equipment to breach the camp.
“We are moving in there with high-velocity vehicles. We are moving with bulldozers and APCs to see how we are going to rescue these victims,” he said.
The Abduction
The victims were among passengers abducted when gunmen attacked two buses along the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway on October 1.
The buses were carrying prospective corps members travelling from Ibadan to orientation camps in the South East and South South when they were ambushed around the Umunoha axis in Mbaitoli Local Government Area.
The Imo State Police Command had earlier confirmed that 10 victims were rescued at the scene, while efforts were on to verify the number still in captivity.
The Defence Headquarters later said 20 passengers were abducted from the two buses, including several prospective NYSC members, while 10 passengers, among them eight prospective corps members, have been rescued.
It added that a joint search and rescue operation involving troops of Operation Udoka, the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services (DSS), with support from the Nigerian Air Force, is ongoing to locate and rescue the remaining victims.
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