The Imo State Police Command has located the suspected camp where 19 prospective National Youth Service Corps members abducted in the state are being held, but security operatives have delayed entering the area over fears that it has been planted with improvised explosive devices.
The state Commissioner of Police, Audu Garba Bosso, disclosed this on Saturday while providing an update on the search-and-rescue operation.
Bosso said security operatives trailed the abductors into the bush and deployed drones on Friday, which helped identify the location of the suspected camp.
He, however, said operatives could not immediately move into the area because intelligence indicated that the camp had been 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 coordinate showed us where 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 commissioner said security agencies were preparing to enter the area with heavy equipment, including bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers, 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.
The prospective corps members were abducted on Thursday while travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states. Gunmen attacked the two buses along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in the Umunoha area of Imo State.
The abductors have reportedly demanded N50m for each of the 19 victims, totalling N950m, with some families contacted through the phones of their abducted relatives.
The Imo State Police Command had earlier announced that 10 victims were rescued, although its spokesperson, Henry Okoye, could not confirm whether they were among the abducted prospective corps members.
The latest development indicates that security agencies have narrowed down the location of the remaining victims as efforts continue to secure their safe release.