By - Abductors give families of 19 kidnapped NYSC members a 24-hour deadline to raise N950m, N50m per victim, or face unspecified harm to the captives
- Imo Police locate the bush camp using drones, but delay a raid after intelligence suggests the site is planted with IEDs
- Deputy Inspector-General Shehu Nadada deployed to Imo State to coordinate the rescue, as parents publicly appeal to the Olubadan of Ibadanland for intervention
Families of 19 prospective NYSC members abducted in Imo State three days ago say their children’s captors have given them 24 hours to raise a combined N950m ransom, N50m per victim, as security operatives race against both the clock and a buried-explosives threat at the camp where the victims are being held.
Speaking on behalf of affected families at the Olubadan of Ibadanland’s Bodija residence on Saturday, Alhaja Akande and Oyebola Akande said the kidnappers had been calling since Friday, using the victims’ own phones, to press the demand, accompanied by threats that something would happen to the captives if the deadline passed without payment.
“There is no way we can raise such an amount at this period,” the families said in their appeal, pleading for intervention. (One family account separately puts the victim count at 20 and the total demand at N1bn; this report follows the more widely corroborated figure of 19.)
A Rescue Racing Against Two Deadlines
The ransom ultimatum lands just as police say they have finally located exactly where the victims are being held, only to find the operation blocked by a second danger entirely.
Imo Commissioner of Police Audu Garba Bosso told reporters Saturday that drones deployed Friday traced the abductors to a specific bush coordinate after security operatives followed their trail from the attack scene. However, tactical teams that reached the area could not move in once intelligence confirmed the camp was mined with improvised explosive devices.
Bosso said the operation is now being reconfigured around heavy equipment, bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers, in an effort to extract the victims without triggering the explosives, leaving police to balance the families’ 24-hour window against the time needed to breach a booby-trapped site safely.
How the Abduction Unfolded
The attack took place Thursday along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in the Umunoha area of Imo State, when gunmen ambushed two buses carrying prospective corps members from Ibadan, Oyo State, toward orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom.
According to Isiah Akpan, Managing Director of Uko Akwa Ibom Motors Nigeria Limited, which owns the vehicles, the buses had already been delayed by traffic near Benin and bad road conditions near Onitsha, forcing passengers to spend the previous night in Oba before resuming their journey around 5am Thursday. Gunmen emerged from the bush shortly after the buses crossed into Imo State, blocking both vehicles and marching the passengers into the forest while the drivers escaped and raised the alarm at a nearby checkpoint.
Police said Thursday night that 10 victims were rescued, though the force’s spokesperson, Henry Okoye, could not confirm whether those rescued were among the abducted corps members specifically, a gap in the official account that remains unresolved as of this report.
Families Describe the Contact So Far
Individual parents gave similarly distressing accounts of how the kidnappers have been reaching them. One mother, who declined to be named, said kidnappers called from her son’s phone demanding N50m for his release alone.
Another, identified as Mrs Oladosu, said her daughter Greatness’s phone was used to arrange a video call in which family members saw their children seated on the ground in the bush, crying. A third mother, Mrs Alimotu Akanke, said her son, Akande Farouq, managed to send a single word, “Kidnappers!”, to a family WhatsApp group before his phone went dead.
A partial manifest from the two affected buses lists 30 passengers total, 15 per vehicle, among them Akande Kehinde, Olaleye Mary, Oladosu Greatness, Obafunsho Rhoda, Abdulrof Anifat, Esther Oyede, Hassan Usman, Ayomide Isa, Mary Makinde, Azeez Adejoke and Abdulrazaq Anifat. Two other buses from the same company, also bound for Abia, passed through unharmed.
Official Response Escalates
The case has drawn attention at the highest levels of policing. Inspector-General Olatunji Disu has deployed Deputy Inspector-General Shehu Nadada, who oversees operations nationally, to Imo State specifically to coordinate the search-and-rescue effort.
Oyo State’s Commissioner of Police, Olugbenga Abimbola, told families at Saturday’s gathering that he has been in direct contact with his Imo counterpart since the day of the attack, and that he had received assurance the victims would be rescued unharmed, though he did not disclose whether any ransom payment was being considered or provide operational specifics in response to the 24-hour deadline.
Oba Rashidi Ladoja, the Olubadan of Ibadanland, who hosted the families alongside the Aseyin of Iseyinland, Oba Sefiu Adeyeri, offered a public assurance that police were working around the clock and that information would be relayed to families as it emerged.
Separately, the Oyo State Government condemned the abduction through Commissioner for Information Dotun Oyelade, saying Governor Seyi Makinde had directed all necessary resources toward securing the victims’ safe return and describing the safety of Oyo indigenes, wherever they are, as a top priority. The statement did not address the ransom demand directly.
A Pattern That Keeps Repeating
This is not an isolated incident, unfortunately so. Thirty-six days earlier, 15 prospective corps members travelling from Bayelsa to Abuja were abducted along the Aloma-Egame Expressway in Kogi State’s Ofu Local Government Area; they were later rescued from Egume Forest.
Other cases stretch back further, including the abduction of lawyer and corps member Eunice Ameh in Maitama, Abuja, in May, reportedly resolved after a ransom was paid, and corps member Musa Abba, abducted while travelling to Sokoto in January.
A 2023 investigation by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism documented at least 80 corps member abductions between 2013 and 2023, with Rivers State accounting for half of all cases, while separate findings indicate more than 20 corps members have been killed in various attacks between 2015 and 2026.
Experts Question the Deployment Model Itself
The recurrence of these attacks has prompted renewed scrutiny of how NYSC mobilises and deploys graduates.
Security analyst Chidi Omeje argued that the predictability of mobilisation periods makes corps members an easy target, since criminal networks can anticipate when and along which routes large groups of young graduates will be travelling, and called for the Federal Government and NYSC to strengthen security specifically along known kidnapping corridors.
Security expert Olalekan Jackson-Ojo went further, questioning whether the scheme’s core objective, national integration through cross-regional service, is sustainable if safety cannot be guaranteed, and suggested allowing corps members to serve within their home states or regions rather than being posted to high-risk areas. He warned that continued attacks without a policy response could erode participation in the scheme over time.
Educationist Dele Olapeju said the pattern of kidnappings is already denting public confidence in NYSC, with more parents seeking redeployment for their children out of fear rather than dismissing the scheme outright, and urged government to prioritise protective measures over structural changes to the programme itself.
As of this report, the NYSC’s Director of Public Relations, Caroline Embu, had not responded to requests for comment on the incident.
