Imo Police Locate Hideout of Abducted Corps Members, Cite IEDs Threat
The Imo State Police Command has located the hideout where suspected kidnappers are holding abducted prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and other victims, but security concerns over improvised explosive devices (IEDs) around the camp have delayed the rescue operation.
The Commissioner of Police in Imo State, CP Audu Garba Bosso, disclosed this while briefing journalists on the ongoing search-and-rescue operation.
Bosso said security operatives, using drones, had successfully tracked the abductors and obtained the coordinates of their location in a forested area.
He, however, explained that troops and other security personnel could not immediately advance to the location because intelligence indicated that the camp and its surrounding areas had been heavily mined with IEDs.
“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,” the commissioner said.
According to him, the drone surveillance provided security forces with precise information on the abductors’ location, but the suspected presence of explosives presented a significant operational challenge.
“But our predicament is that with the intel we have, the camp is mined with IEDs,” Bosso said.
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He added that security forces were mobilising specialised equipment, including bulldozers, armoured personnel carriers and other high-mobility vehicles, to safely 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 abducted on October 1 after suspected gunmen attacked two buses travelling along the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway.
The buses were reportedly conveying prospective corps members from Ibadan to orientation camps in the South-East and South-South when they came under attack around the Umunoha axis of the highway in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State.
The Imo Police Command had earlier reported that 10 victims were rescued at the scene, while efforts were ongoing to establish the exact number of persons still in captivity.
The Defence Headquarters subsequently disclosed that 20 passengers had been abducted from the two buses, including several prospective corps members.
It said 10 passengers, including eight identified prospective corps members, had been rescued.
The military high command said a joint search-and-rescue operation involving troops of Operation UDO KA, 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.
By PRNigeria
