IEDs block rescue as drone locates NYSC abductors’ camp — Imo CP

The Imo State Police Command has located the hideout where suspected kidnappers are holding abducted National Youth Service Corps members and other victims, Commissioner of Police Audu Garba Bosso has said.

Bosso said security operatives used drones to track the kidnappers and identify their location in a forest, but the rescue operation had been delayed by intelligence that the area was heavily planted with improvised explosive devices.

Speaking on the ongoing operation, the commissioner said security forces had moved into the area and were working to reach the victims safely.

“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.

He said drone surveillance enabled the security forces to establish the location of the abductors but the suspected presence of IEDs around the camp had complicated the operation.

“But our predicament is that with the intel we have, the camp is mined with IEDs,” the CP said.

Bosso added that security agencies were preparing to deploy heavy equipment, including high-velocity vehicles, bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers, to gain access to the location.

“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 victims were abducted on October 1 after suspected gunmen attacked two buses along the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway in Imo State.

The buses were reportedly carrying prospective corps members travelling from Ibadan to orientation camps in the South-East and South-South when they came under attack around the Umunoha axis of the road in Mbaitoli Local Government Area.

The Imo police had initially reported that 10 victims were rescued, while efforts continued to establish the number of people still in captivity.

The Defence Headquarters later said 20 passengers were abducted from the two buses, including prospective corps members, while 10 passengers, eight of them identified as prospective corps members, were rescued.

The military said a joint search-and-rescue operation involving troops of Operation Udoka, the police and the Department of State Services, with support from the Nigerian Air Force, was ongoing to locate and rescue the remaining victims.

The latest development comes as security agencies intensify efforts to safely reach the abducted passengers and bring them out of the suspected kidnappers’ hideout.