Travellers, including prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, drivers and other passengers, have reportedly been abducted by armed kidnappers along the Onitsha–Owerri Road in Imo State.
The incident, which reportedly occurred on Thursday, October 1, Nigeria’s Independence Day, affected at least two commercial buses, while passengers travelling in other vehicles along the route were also allegedly taken away.
The exact number of victims remains unknown as details of the attack continue to emerge.
Videos circulating online showed distraught family members raising the alarm over the disappearance of their loved ones, some of whom had departed Ibadan for NYSC orientation camps in the South-East and South-South regions.
According to accounts from affected families, the prospective corps members boarded buses operated by Uko Akwa Ibom Motors at Samonda, Ibadan, intending to travel to orientation camps in Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Imo and Abia states.
Some relatives reportedly returned to the motor park in Ibadan to alert other families whose loved ones had travelled from the same location.
In one of the accounts circulating online, a passenger who reportedly escaped the attack described how armed men allegedly seized the occupants of vehicles travelling along the road.
“They carried everybody, including the driver,” the passenger said while filming a commercial bus reportedly abandoned by the roadside after the abduction.
One distraught mother also narrated how her child, who had left Ibadan for an NYSC orientation camp in the eastern part of the country, sent a disturbing message to the family’s WhatsApp group before becoming unreachable.
According to the woman, her child typed the word “kidnapper” in the group chat on the morning of October 1, after which the family could no longer establish contact.
She said repeated calls to the child’s telephone number had proved unsuccessful, heightening fears among relatives.
The reported abduction has sparked anxiety among families awaiting the arrival of their children and other relatives travelling to their destinations for the NYSC orientation exercise.
As of the time of filing this report, the total number of abducted persons, their whereabouts and the circumstances surrounding their release remained unclear.
