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An unspecified number of travellers, including National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, have reportedly been abducted by armed men along the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway in Imo State on Nigeria’s 66th Independence Day.
At least two commercial buses were reportedly attacked at about 5:30 am on Thursday, with passengers allegedly robbed and taken into the bush. The number of people affected remains unclear.
According to reports and videos circulating online, some of the passengers were corps members who had departed from Samonda, Ibadan, in buses operated by Uko Akwa Ibom Motors.
The corps members were reportedly travelling to their assigned orientation camps in states across the South-East and South-South, including Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Imo and Abia.
In a video shared online, an eyewitness said the attackers intercepted buses travelling from Lagos towards Anambra State and took the passengers away after robbing them.
“Good morning, my fellow Nigerians. I am reporting from the Owerri-Onitsha Road. This happened this morning,” the eyewitness said.
The witness further claimed that security personnel had arrived at the scene and that soldiers had entered the bush in search of the victims.
“The police came this morning, and the army has already entered the bush to see if they can rescue the victims,” the eyewitness said.
The footage showed two buses abandoned by the roadside, one bearing the inscription “Uko Akwa Ibom Motors Nig. Ltd” and the number Uko/133.
The reported incident has left some families searching for relatives who were travelling to their NYSC orientation camps.
In a separate video shared by Agidigbo FM Ibadan, a distressed woman appealed for help, saying her daughter was among the corps members whose whereabouts had become unknown.
According to the woman, her daughter left the Samonda park in Ibadan on Wednesday with other corps members travelling to the eastern part of the country.
She said the family received a message from her daughter in their WhatsApp group shortly after 6am on Thursday. The message reportedly contained the word “kidnapper”, after which the daughter’s phone became unreachable.
Describing the family’s distress, the mother said: “Since past 6am, I have not been able to hear from my child, and we couldn’t get her exact location anymore. Please, federal government, help us. I only have the two of them.”
She identified the missing corps member as Kehinde and said her twin sister, Taiwo, had already arrived in Enugu for her orientation camp.
Other relatives reportedly visited the park where their loved ones had boarded buses in Ibadan, seeking information about the travellers.
However, the identities and number of those allegedly abducted, as well as their current whereabouts, remained unclear at the time of reporting.
The Imo State Police Command had yet to issue an official statement confirming the incident, while its spokesperson, Henry Okoye, had not responded to requests for comment at the time of the reports.
