The 20 members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) freed on Wednesday after seven days in captivity in a forest in Imo have reunited with their families in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
According to The Nation, the Department of State Service (DSS) command in Oyo state handed the abductees over to their families at about 8:30pm on Thursday.
The parents reportedly waited for about three hours at the DSS headquarters before being reunited with their children.
The security operatives debriefed the victims before handing them over to their parents in Ibadan.
Speaking briefly during the reunion, Akande Morenikeji, one of the freed corps members, described their seven days in captivity as mentally and physically draining.
“Ah, it was stressful, too,” Morenikeji was quoted as saying.
She said the female victims were neither chained nor sexually harassed during their captivity, while the males were subjected to restrictions.
“We were not chained; the guys, yes, the guys mostly. But as for us, the girls, they did not do any sexual harassment to us. They did not do anything sexual to us,” she said.
BACK STORY
The NYSC members were abducted along the Owerri-Onitsha expressway in Imo on Thursday, October 1, when gunmen attacked two 18-seater buses conveying them and other passengers and took them into the bush.
According to a video that went viral on X, the victims were travelling to Akwa Ibom and Abia states in buses branded with the Abia state government logo when the attackers intercepted the vehicles.
In a statement announcing their release on Wednesday, Anietie Iniedu, spokesperson of Nigeria Police Force (NPF), said a joint team of operatives from the DSS, military and the police carried out the rescue operation.
Before the rescue operation was concluded, the abductors contacted the victims’ parents on Saturday and demanded a N1 billion ransom, giving them 24 hours to pay for their children’s release.
The abductors later reduced the ransom to N5 million per person, bringing the total to N100 million for all 20 victims.
In response, Tunji Disu, inspector-general of police (IGP), deployed Shehu Nadada, deputy inspector-general of police in charge of operations, to coordinate efforts to rescue the corps members.
The force spokesperson said Nadada arrived in Imo with two commissioners of police and conducted an on-the-spot assessment of the operation.
He said the DIG reviewed the deployment of personnel and operational assets and issued directives to strengthen the coordinated response.