The hideout where suspected kidnappers are holding abducted prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and other victims has been located with the help of drones, but security operatives are yet to move into the area because the camp is reportedly surrounded by improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The Imo State Commissioner of Police, Audu Garba Bosso, disclosed this while giving an update on the search-and-rescue operation, saying security forces had established the location of the abductors after tracking them into the bush.
The operation, however, has entered a more delicate phase, with the police relying on intelligence that the route into the kidnappers’ camp has been mined. Bosso said this had prevented operatives from immediately advancing to the coordinates identified by the drones.
‘Yesterday we were in the bush; we trailed them up to a particular location. But at that point in time, we couldn’t move in to where the coordinates showed us where they are,’ he said.
Rather than abandon the operation, the police commissioner said security forces were preparing to force a safe route into the area with specialised equipment capable of navigating the difficult terrain.
‘But our predicament is that with the intel we have, the camp is mined with IEDs,’ Bosso said.
He said the security team would deploy high-velocity vehicles, bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers as part of efforts to reach the victims without triggering the explosives reportedly planted around the camp.
‘We are moving in there with high-velocity vehicles. We are moving with bulldozers and APCs to see how we are going to rescue these victims,’ he said.
The victims were abducted after suspected gunmen attacked two buses on the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway in Imo State on October 1.
The passengers were travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State to orientation camps in the South East and South South when the buses came under attack around the Umunoha axis in Mbaitoli Local Government Area.