Abducted NYSC Member Recounts Physical, Mental Ordeal

One of the released prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, Morenikeji Akande, yesterday described their experience in captivity as physically and mentally exhausting.

Speaking during the reunion with their families, she disclosed that the female victims were neither chained nor sexually harassed during their captivity, unlike the male victims who were subjected to restrictions.

“We were not chained, the guys mostly were chained. But as for us girls, they did not sexually harass us,” she said.

Some of the victims when contacted declined comments saying that they were warned not to grant media interviews for now.

Commenting on the development, a member of staff of the Ibadan NYSC office, Adewole Bamidele, said they were not originally deployed to Imo State, but were travelling through Imo State via the Owerri-Onitsha road en route their designated NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states when the abduction occurred.

He said even with the severe psychological trauma from the incident, family members and prominent socio-political groups (such as Afenifere and local representatives) openly demanded that the federal government and the NYSC management overhaul deployment policies and ensure that affected youths are not exposed to further transit risks.

“While the NYSC headquarters typically processes concessions and automatic redeployments on compassionate and security grounds following critical incidents, the freed members are currently at home recovering from their ordeal,” he added.

The victims were abducted on Thursday, October 1, when gunmen attacked two 18-seater buses conveying them and other passengers along the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway in Imo State and took them into the bush.

Meanwhile, Oyo State government has accused its Imo State counterpart of breaching protocol by failing to communicate directly and officially with it over the release of the corps members.

The state government faulted the communication between the Imo State government and the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, concerning the release of the corps members.

Speaking on a radio programme in Ibadan, the chief press secretary and special adviser on media to the Oyo State governor, Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju, said the corps members should have been formally handed over to the Oyo State government after their debriefing by the Department of State Services (DSS).

Olanrewaju, however, expressed relief over their release and reunion with their families, stressing that the welfare of the victims remained the government’s primary concern.

“We are glad that they have been released and reunited with their families. The incident did not happen in Oyo State but the lives of every citizen matter to the Oyo State government,” he said.

He explained that the state government had collaborated with its Imo counterpart following the abduction, adding that the corps members should ideally have been handed over to Oyo State because they travelled from the state.

“We collaborated with the Imo State Government after the corps were abducted and the ideal thing is that they should have been handed over to the Oyo State Government because they are from Oyo State. The government will now ensure they are reunited with their families,” Olanrewaju said.