The Imo State Police Command has located the camp where 19 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members abducted in the state are believed to be held, but security operatives have delayed storming the location over fears that it has been booby-trapped with improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Audu Garba Bosso, disclosed this on Saturday during a media interview while providing an update on the ongoing search-and-rescue operation.

Bosso said security operatives deployed drones on Friday to locate the suspected camp after trailing the abductors into the bush.

He, however, said the security agencies were exercising caution because intelligence indicated that the camp had been mined with IEDs.

“Any moment, we’ll still move into the bush. 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 because we ran drones yesterday. And the drone actually showed us exactly their location.

“But our predicament is that, with the intel we have, the camp is mined with IEDs,” the commissioner said.

Bosso said security agencies were preparing to enter the area with heavy equipment, including bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers, to facilitate the safe rescue of the victims.

“We are moving in there with high-velocity vehicles, that is, bulldozers. We’re moving in with bulldozers and APCs to see how we’re going to rescue these victims unhurt,” he added.

The development comes two days after gunmen abducted 19 prospective corps members travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.

The victims were travelling in two buses when the attackers struck along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in the Umunoha area of Imo State on Thursday.

The Managing Director of Uko Akwa Ibom Motors Nigeria Limited, Isiah Akpan, told Saturday PUNCH that the abductors took 19 passengers, all of whom were prospective corps members, into the bush.

He said the drivers escaped and alerted security personnel at a nearby checkpoint, prompting security agencies to commence a search of the area.

The abductors have reportedly demanded ₦50 million for each of the 19 victims, amounting to ₦950 million. Some families were reportedly contacted through the phones of their abducted relatives.

One of the victims’ mothers, Mrs Oladosu, told Saturday PUNCH that the abductors contacted her family through her daughter’s phone. She added that the family saw some of the victims during a video call.

The Imo State Police Command had earlier said that 10 victims were rescued. However, its spokesperson, Henry Okoye, could not confirm whether the rescued persons were among the abducted prospective corps members.