The Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, has ordered the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Operations, Shehu Nadada, to coordinate the rescue of 20 passengers abducted in Imo State.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE recalls that two buses transporting National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and other passengers were on October 1st waylaid in Umunoha, along the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway.
The victims were kidnapped around 6 am around Umunoha area along the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway (near the Anambra-Imo border).
The two buses are owned by a transport company which departed from Samonda, Ibadan, carrying graduates—mostly from the University of Ibadan (UI) and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH)—en route to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
Security operatives and police recovered the two buses and successfully rescued 10 passengers at the scene.
Forces spokesperson Anietie Iniedu, in a statement on Friday, said Nadada was already in the state with two commissioners of police and conducted on-the-spot assessment of the operation.
He said Nadada reviewed the deployment of personnel and operational assets and issued directives to strengthen the coordinated response.
Iniedu said the assessment was conducted alongside the two Commissioners of Police, Audu Bosso for Imo and Akpan Anifiok, in charge of Federal Operations, and other service commanders.
“The search-and-rescue operation has been further intensified, with additional deployments of tactical teams and operational assets across identified areas, backed by intelligence-led tracking of the suspects,” the statement said.
