Police secure release of 11 NYSC members abducted in Kogi

Members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) numbering several were kidnapped by armed persons on Wednesday along the Aloma-Egane Expressway in the Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

But according to the police command of Kogi State, eleven of those kidnapped corps members had been rescued.

It was said that the members of the NYSC were travelling from the NYSC orientation camp in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State when the attack on them was launched.

In a statement made available to TheCable on Friday, Saliu Afusat, spokesperson for the Kogi State Police Command, said security operatives began a rescue operation immediately after receiving a distress call about the incident.

According to her, the operation led to the rescue of 11 abducted victims, including the drivers of the two buses involved in the incident.

She said preliminary debriefing showed that most of the rescued victims were NYSC members travelling from Bayelsa State to Abuja.

Afusat said the incident occurred at about 4:40pm around Ogene Zaria, near the Ogene Zaria/Onicha-Igo Junction, when armed hoodlums emerged from the bush, blocked two buses travelling in opposite directions and abducted some passengers.

“Upon receipt of the distress call, the Divisional Police Officer, Ofu, led a joint security team to the scene, where two abandoned vehicles — a Peace Mass Transit white Hummer bus and a yellow 18-seater bus — were recovered,” she said.

She added that a coordinated bush-combing and rescue operation was subsequently launched, resulting in the recovery of the 11 victims.

The rescued persons were debriefed and, after necessary procedures, allowed to continue their journey, according to the police.

The command did not disclose the exact number of people abducted in the attack, while efforts to ascertain the number of NYSC members still in captivity were ongoing.

Afusat said the police and other security agencies had deployed “every available operational and intelligence resource” to locate and rescue any remaining victims and apprehend the assailants.