The Department of State Services (DSS) on Tuesday arraigned five suspected members of a criminal syndicate before the Justice Oputa State High Court in Owerri, Imo State, over the abduction of 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and a civilian.
The defendants, identified as Ibrahim Jiji, Aminu Haliru, Mohammed Ali, Usman Aliyu, and Babangida Aliyu, were escorted into the courtroom under heavy security, where charges including conspiracy, armed robbery, and kidnapping were preferred against them.
The arraignment stems from an incident on 1 October 2026, when armed assailants ambushed two commercial buses along the Owerri–Onitsha Expressway near Umunoha in the Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State. The victims were travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to their designated NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
Following the abduction, the syndicate established contact with families of the victims, initially demanding ransoms of up to ₦50 million per person—totalling as much as ₦1 billion – before reducing the figures during subsequent negotiations. Security forces rejected extortion demands, focusing instead on tactical extraction.
On 7 October 2026, a coordinated rescue operation combining aerial drone surveillance and ground tracking by the DSS, the Nigerian Army, and the Nigeria Police Force located the syndicate’s hideout in the Amakohia-Ubi forest within Owerri West Local Government Area. All 21 hostages were rescued unharmed and transferred to the DSS Medical Facility in Owerri for medical triage, psychological evaluation, and trauma counselling, where they were visited by the Director-General of the NYSC, Brigadier-General Olakunle Oluseye Nafiu, alongside state security chiefs.
Between 10 and 14 October, a subsequent multi-agency manhunt across Rivers and Abia states led to the arrest of the five suspects in Port Harcourt and Aba, alongside the recovery of weapons, ammunition, and operational equipment.
Authorities disclosed that three other syndicate members sustained gunshot wounds during an exchange of fire and fled the scene. Clearance operations and manhunts remain active across adjoining border communities to apprehend the fleeing suspects.
