• Thursday, May 16, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Gunmen kidnap eight NYSC members on their way to camp

Gunmen abduct civil servant near military base as insecurity further grips Abuja

Gunmen kidnapped eight National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members along a highway in Zamfara on Saturday.

The corps members were on their way to Sokoto State via Zamfara State, where they were participating in the mandatory national service, when their bus, operated by AKTC, was stopped along the highway in Zamfara, according to Premium Times

It was learnt that 11 corps members were present, but three of them managed to get away from the gunmen.

Apart from the eight corps members, the driver of the bus was also abducted, he said.

Read also: Mass kidnapping: Ribadu assures schools security will get special attention

“ The corps members were offloaded (from the bus) and taken into the bush,” he said. “The police have recovered the bus.”

“They left here (Uyo) on Friday, and slept over in Abuja. It was when they were proceeding to Sokoto that they were kidnapped,” Premium Times reported.

At approximately 9:14 a.m. on Sunday, Malachy Blessed, a Facebook user, revealed in a post that one of the kidnapped corps members was Emmanuel Esudue, an alumnus of Akwa Ibom State University’s Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering.

Read also: Tribunal admits Chicago University, NYSC certificates as evidence against Tinubu

The phone number of the corps member, according to him, has not been reachable since Thursday.

Betty Udofia has been recognised as another victim.

Edidiong Richard, a Facebook user, claimed that the kidnappers had gotten in touch with Ms. Udofia’s parents and were requesting a ransom of N4 million.