Security agencies have delayed an immediate advance on the suspected hideout of kidnappers holding prospective National Youth Service Corps members in Imo State after intelligence indicated that the camp had been mined with improvised explosive devices.
The Imo State Commissioner of Police, Audu Bosso, disclosed on Saturday that operatives had located the suspected camp where the victims were being held but could not immediately move in because of the IED threat.
He said security personnel trailed the kidnappers into the bush and deployed drones on Friday, which pinpointed the suspected location.
“Any moment, we’ll still move into the bush. 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 coordinate showed us they are 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,” Bosso said.
The police commissioner said security agencies were preparing to deploy bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers in the operation.
“We are moving in there with 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 police spokesperson, Henry Okoye, also told Sunday PUNCH that security operatives were “closing in on the kidnappers,” adding that personnel deployed for the operation had been briefed on how to proceed.
The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, had earlier deployed the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Operations, Shehu Nadada, and two commissioners of police to Imo State to strengthen the rescue operation.
Nadada arrived in the state on Friday and reviewed the personnel, strategy and operational assets deployed for the search-and-rescue mission.
The graduates were travelling in two buses from Ibadan, Oyo State, to NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states when gunmen attacked the vehicles along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Umunoha, Imo State, on Thursday.
The attack has generated conflicting accounts over the number of passengers abducted and those subsequently rescued.
Meanwhile, parents of the prospective corps members have disputed claims by security agencies that 10 passengers were rescued after the attack.
The distraught parents told Sunday PUNCH that the 10 passengers reported as rescued by the police actually escaped from the kidnappers by fleeing into the bush during the attack.
They maintained that 20 prospective corps members were in captivity as of Saturday, raising questions over earlier accounts of the incident by security agencies.
The Imo State Police Command had announced shortly after the attack that 10 victims had been rescued following the intervention of security agencies.
Okoye said at the time that the exact number of persons abducted was still being verified.
However, the parents challenged the rescue account on Saturday during a visit to the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, at his private residence in Bodija, Ibadan.
Speaking through two parents, Alhaja Alimot Akande and Oyebola Akande, the families said 30 passengers were travelling in the two buses when the gunmen struck.
According to them, 10 passengers managed to escape through the bush while 20 others were taken away by the kidnappers.
Alhaja Akande said the families first learnt of the attack through a social media post by one of those who escaped.
She said, “I rushed to the bus terminal at Samonda, Ibadan, but the management of the transport company did not cooperate with us. We demanded the manifest to ascertain the identities of the passengers on board the two buses but they declined.
“After persistent pressure being mounted by the grieving parents, they brought out a paper, but we discovered the names of some of the affected corps members were not on their list.
“When we inquired further, the response was that the majority of them refused to put their names on the paper.
“We have asked them to produce the drivers of the two vehicles who managed to escape the attacks, but they declined as well.”
The parents’ account contrasts with the initial statement by the Imo State Police Command that 10 victims were rescued at the scene.
The police had said the two buses were recovered following a swift response by security agencies and that the 10 rescued victims were safe and receiving attention.
The Defence Headquarters also subsequently said 20 passengers were abducted and that 10 people, including eight prospective corps members, were rescued following the intervention of troops and other security agencies.
The conflicting accounts have further complicated efforts to establish the exact number of prospective corps members still being held.
Credit: Punchng
