The abductors of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Umunoha community of Mbaitoli Local Government Area (LGA) of Imo State last Thursday have given the parents of the victims a 24-hour ultimatum to pay N50million ransom for each victim, amounting to N1billion.
The development comes just as the Imo State Police Command revealed that it had identified the location where the victims were being held. The command said that security operatives delayed moving into the camp over fears that it was planted with improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mr. Olatunji Disu, has, however, deployed a top Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) and commissioners of police (CPs) to Imo State to lead an aggressive search-and-rescue operation.
The victims’ parents disclosed the 24-hour ultimatum Saturday when they visited the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, at his private residence in Bodija, Ibadan, alongside the state Commissioner of Police, Olugbenga Abimbola, and the Aseyin of Iseyinland, Oba Sefiu Adeyeri.
Speaking on behalf of the affected families, Alhaja Akande and Oyebola Akande said the abductors had been contacting them through the mobile phones of the kidnapped prospective corps members.
“They have been calling us since Friday with a demand for N50million ransom each. They are threatening that anything untoward will happen to our children if we fail to heed their request.
“There is no way we can raise such an amount at this time. Baba, kindly assist us. Don’t let them kill our children,” the parents said.
The parents appealed to Ladoja and the police commissioner to intervene and secure their children’s immediate release.
In his response,Ladoja assured the parents that efforts were underway to rescue the victims unharmed.
“I want to assure you that your children will be rescued unharmed. We will relate whatever information we gather to you. The police are working round the clock to secure their rescue. Don’t worry yourself; the police are up to the task, and nothing will happen to your children.” He said
Also speaking, the state Commissioner of Police, Olugbenga Abimbola, said he had contacted his counterpart in Imo State over the incident.
“I had already contacted Imo State CP. We have been talking since the day of the incident, and he assured me that the victims would be rescued unhurt,” he said.
Reacting to the abduction of the NYSC members travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to their orientation camps in the South-east and South-south, the Makinde/Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation has alleged that Tinubu’s laxity on security has emboldened terrorists, bandits and kidnappers.
The MDPCO through its Director of Strategic Communications, Richard Ihediwa, said the incident was another sad commentary on what it described as the failure of the Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration to secure Nigerians, particularly youths on national assignment.
“It is profoundly saddening and heartbreaking that under the watch of the Tinubu-led administration, parents toil, make immense sacrifices and struggle through biting economic hardship to train their children through tertiary institutions, only for them to be handed over to terrorists and bandits,” the organisation said.
The campaign organisation said the incident was not isolated, but reflected a wider security crisis in which homes, communities, markets, places of worship, schools and highways were increasingly being overrun by criminal elements.
It alleged that more than 600,000 Nigerians had been killed by terrorists, bandits and marauders in the three-and-a-half years of the Tinubu administration, while countless others remained in captivity.
“Sadly, Nigeria under President Tinubu is fast degenerating into a failed state where the primary constitutional duty of government, which is to ensure the security and welfare of citizens, has collapsed,” the MDPCO said.
Meanwhile,, the Commissioner of Police in Imo State, Audu Garba Bosso, while giving an update on the search and rescue mission disclosed that the police had located the kidnappers’ den.
Bosso said the police used drones on Friday to locate the suspected camp after security operatives trailed the abductors into the bush.
He, however, said the security agencies were being cautious because intelligence indicated that the camp had been mined with IEDs.
“Any moment, we’ll still move into the bush on Saturday, we were in the bush; we trailed them up to a particular location.
“But then, we couldn’t move into where the coordinates showed us. We ran drones on Saturday and the drone actually showed us exactly their location.
“But our predicament is that with the intel we have, the IED is—the camp is mined with IEDs,” the commissioner said.
Bosso added that security agencies were preparing to move into the area with heavy equipment, including bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers, in an effort to rescue the victims safely.
“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.
Gunmen abducted the prospective corps members travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The victims were travelling in two buses when the attackers struck along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Umunoha, Mbaitoli LGA, Imo State, on Thursday.
The Managing Director of Uko Akwa Ibom Motors Nigeria Limited, Isiah Akpan, said the abductors took 19 passengers, all prospective corps members, into the bush.
He said the drivers escaped and alerted security personnel at a nearby checkpoint, prompting security agencies to commence a search of the area.
