Imo CP Reveals Camp Is Rigged With IEDs, Gives Update On Abducted NYSC Members

The Imo State Commissioner of Police, Audu Garba Bosso, says security operatives have pinpointed the location where the 19 abducted National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) prospective members are being held.

This comes two days after gunmen abducted 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 the Umunoha area of Imo State on Thursday.

Bosso, while giving an update on the search-and-rescue operation in a media interview on Saturday, said security operatives have delayed moving into the camp over fears that it is planted with improvised explosive devices.

Bosso said the police used drones on Friday to locate the suspected camp after security operatives trailed the abductors into the bush, but the security agencies were being cautious because intelligence indicated that the camp had been mined with IEDs.

According to him, the 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.

He said, “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 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 IED is the camp is mined with IEDs.

“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.”