The Imo State Police Command has located the hideout where suspected kidnappers are holding abducted National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and other victims, Commissioner of Police Audu Garba Bosso has disclosed.
Bosso said security operatives used drones to track the abductors and were able to identify their exact location in the bush, but said the rescue operation had been delayed by intelligence indicating that the area was heavily mined with improvised explosive devices.
Speaking to journalists on the ongoing operation, the Imo CP said security forces had already moved into the area and would continue efforts 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,” he said.
According to him, the drones provided security operatives with the exact location of the abductors, but the presence of IEDs around the camp posed a major challenge to the operation.
“But our predicament is that with the intel we have, the camp is mined with IEDs,” Bosso said.
He added that security forces were preparing to deploy heavy equipment, including high-velocity vehicles, bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers, to gain access to the area and rescue the victims.
“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 among passengers abducted after suspected gunmen attacked two buses along the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway in Imo State on October 1.
The buses were reportedly carrying prospective corps members travelling from Ibadan to orientation camps in the South East and South South when they were attacked around the Umunoha axis of the road in Mbaitoli Local Government Area.
The Imo State Police Command had earlier said 10 victims were rescued at the scene, while the exact number of those still in captivity was being verified.
The Defence Headquarters subsequently said 20 passengers were abducted from the two buses, including several prospective corps members, while 10 passengers, among them eight identified prospective corps members, had been rescued.
It said a joint search and rescue operation involving troops of Operation Udoka, the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services, with support from the Nigerian Air Force, was ongoing to locate and rescue the remaining victims.
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