The Imo State Police Command has identified the location where 19 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members abducted in the state are believed to be held, but security operatives have delayed moving into the area over fears that the camp has been planted with improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The Commissioner of Police, Audu Bosso, disclosed this on Saturday while giving an update on the ongoing search-and-rescue operation.
Bosso said security operatives tracked the abductors into the bush before deploying drones on Friday to pinpoint the location of their suspected hideout.
He, however, said the security agencies could not immediately move into the area because of intelligence indicating that the camp had been mined with IEDs.
“Any moment, we’ll still move into the bush. Yesterday, we were in the bush; we trailed them up to a particular location,” he said.
“But at that point in time, we couldn’t move into where the coordinates showed us they were because we ran drones yesterday. And the drone actually showed us exactly their location.
“But our predicament is that with the intel we have, the camp is mined with IEDs.”
The police commissioner said security agencies were preparing to enter the area with heavy equipment, including bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers (APCs), to facilitate the rescue of the victims.
“We are moving in there with high, you know, high-velocity vehicles, that is, bulldozers; we’re moving in with bulldozers and APCs to see how we’re going to rescue these victims unhurt,” he added.
The development followed the abduction of prospective corps members travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The victims were travelling in two buses when gunmen attacked them along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in the Umunoha area of Imo State on Thursday.
The Imo State Police Public Relations Officer, Henry Okoye, had earlier said 10 victims were rescued following the attack, although the command said the exact number of people abducted was still being verified.
The number of victims still in captivity has subsequently been the subject of conflicting accounts. While the police commissioner referred to 19 prospective corps members in the suspected camp, reports citing families of the victims have put the number at 20.
The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, has also deployed the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Operations, Shehu Nadada, and two commissioners of police to reinforce the rescue operation. Nadada arrived in Imo on Friday and reviewed the personnel, strategy and operational assets deployed for the mission.
The police have said tactical teams and other security personnel are continuing efforts to locate and rescue the remaining victims.
Meanwhile, families of the abducted prospective corps members have appealed for urgent intervention, amid reports of ransom demands by the kidnappers.
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