An unspecified number of travellers, including prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, have reportedly been abducted by gunmen along the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway in Imo State on Nigeria’s Independence Day.
Reports said at least two commercial buses were attacked, with passengers and drivers allegedly taken into the bush.
The incident was reported in the early hours of Thursday, October 1, with eyewitness accounts placing the attack along the Owerri-Onitsha route in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State.
Videos circulating online showed two abandoned buses on the roadside, including a vehicle operated by Uko Akwa Ibom Motors. An eyewitness claimed that the attackers robbed the passengers before taking them into the bush.
Some of the alleged victims were reportedly prospective corps members travelling from Ibadan to orientation camps in states across the South-East and South-South.
According to accounts from relatives, some of the corps members had departed from Samonda in Ibadan on Wednesday, travelling towards camps in states including Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Imo and Abia.
One distraught relative said her daughter contacted the family WhatsApp group on Thursday morning and sent a message reading “kidnapper”, after which her phone became unreachable.
Another eyewitness who was travelling in a bus that reportedly escaped the attack said the attackers took passengers and drivers from the affected vehicles.
“They carried everybody, including the driver,” the eyewitness said in a video recorded at the scene.
Reports indicated that other vehicles travelling along the route may also have been affected, although the exact number of people allegedly abducted remained unclear.
TheCable reported that security personnel had moved into the surrounding bush in an effort to locate and rescue the victims.
As of the time of reporting, the Imo State Police Command had not issued an official statement confirming the reported abductions.
The reports have sparked concern among families of travellers and prospective corps members travelling to orientation camps in the region.
