THE call for the scrapping or at least making the mandatory one year national service under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) optional have intensified, following the abduction of several prospective corps members along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Imo State last week, 20 of who remain the kidnappers captivity.
The incident and subsequent demand for N5million ransom for each victim, down from the initial N50million demanded, have also heightened anxiety among the families of the victims.
This is even as parents of the victims alleged that the abducted graduates were being beaten by their captors, heightening fears over their safety and wellbeing, and prompting renewed calls for urgent government intervention.
Recall that the prospective corps members were kidnapped travelling from Ibadan to their NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states on Thursday, October 1, by gunmen who attacked the two buses conveying them around Umunoha on the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Imo State.
Some of the names released by the parents during their visit to the private residence of the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, in Bodija, on Saturday, October 3, include Makinde Mary Oluwapelumi; Akande Kehinde Morufat; Abdul Temiloluwa Sarah; Adeniran Mariam Olulola; Adefioye Ayomide Isaac; Adewale Paul Iyanuoluwa; and Oyede Esther Funmilayo.
The names were.
The parents disputed reports that 10 passengers/corps members were rescued by security operatives after the attack, saying those who escaped did so by fleeing into the bush.
One of the parents, Alimot Akande, speaking through one of her daughters in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Sunday, October 4, said the abductors had subjected the victims to physical assault since Friday, October 2, adding that the reduction in the ransom had not eased the families’ anxiety.
According to her: “The kidnappers had reduced their demand from the earlier N50million per victim to N5million each.
“They are still demanding N5million. They have come down to N5million each.”
Oba Ladoja assured the parents that their children would be rescued unharmed, saying: “I want to assure that your children would be rescued unharmed. We will relate whatever information we gather to you.
“The Police are working round the clock to secure their rescue. Don’t worry yourself, the police are up to the task, and nothing would happen to your children.”
The Oyo State Commissioner of Police (CP), Olugbenga Abimbola, said he had contacted his Imo State counterpart and that efforts were underway to secure the victims’ rescue.
The Imo State Commissioner of Police (CP), Audu Bosso, had earlier on Saturday said operatives had located the camp where the prospective corps members were being held, but could now move in because explosives had been planted at the site.
Bosso stated that Police operatives had tracked the group to a location in the bush, but could not advance into the camp because intelligence indicated that it was mined with explosives, adding: “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.
“The drone actually showed us exactly their location, but our predicament is that with the Intel we have, the camp is mined with IEDs.”
He, however, noted that the Police were deploying vehicles, bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers to support efforts to reach the victims and bring them out unhurt.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of Operations, Shehu Umar Nadada, who was deployed to the state by Inspector General of Police (IGP), Tunji Disu, to coordinate the rescue operations, assured families that security agencies were working to secure their safe release, urging them to cooperate with operatives.
He stated: “I know it’s difficult, particularly for the parents of the victims. I know what they are feeling, but they should work with the security agencies.”
Nadada said Disu had directed the deployment of additional operational assets and tactical teams to reinforce personnel already on the ground, noting: “So, definitely we are working hard to ensure that all those victims are rescued.”
Meanwhile, the victims’ families’ receipt of ransom demands has deepened their anxiety, with some of the appealling to the state and federal government to come to their aid and secure the release of their loved ones.
One of the confirmed that the kidnappers briefly contacted the family through her daughter’s phone and allowed them to see her and other victims during a video call, while sitting on the ground in the bush and crying.
She lamented: “Where will petty traders get N50million? They are just going to serve Nigeria; why this punishment?”
Another victim’s mother said her son managed to send a brief message to the family’s WhatsApp group before his phone went off, saying: “Kidnappers!”
A manifest from the two buses reportedly listed 30 passengers, 15 in each bus, although the number of people actually abducted and the identities of those rescued remained unclear, as security agents were yet to release the manifest from the transport company.
The Oyo State Government, while condemning the abduction, assured the parents and relatives of their safe release when the families during a visit to protest the abduction.
Akande could not confirm how much the families had raised towards the ransom, as she was not privy to the arrangements between the kidnappers and the other parents.
She described the situation as horrible, scary and overwhelming, and became more disturbing after she learnt that the abductors had started beating the victims.
“We appeal to the government at all levels to please assist us in getting them rescued out of that place. They have started beating them since yesterday.
“They are not sparing anybody. They are beating all of them.
“The abductors would alert the victim whenever his father’s call came in and allow him to speak, because they believed the father could provide the ransom. His father has been communicating with him.
“The kidnappers give him access to a telephone. Whenever his father calls, they show him that a call came in for you. He would just say, ‘Oh, that’s my father.’
“They know money will come out of father’s hands, so they would just pick it and allow him to talk. And they have been beating him. They have been beating all of them.
“The Police are telling us to still be buying time. We are still looking for the money. Depending, they will see them rescued.”
As the parents’ anguish continue, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has called for the suspension of the scheme for one year to allow the Federal Government to reorganise the programme and strengthen measures to ensure the safety of corps members.
Its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, in an interview with The Punch on Sunday, said though the scheme remained relevant to national unity, the current security situation requires its temporary suspension and review.
He stated: “I think the NYSC is still relevant, but I think we need to respond to the current situation of insecurity in the country.
“If we were to advise the President, we think this is the time to suspend it for at least one year to give room for proper reorganisation, in such a way that it will protect the young people and also make the scheme worthwhile for them.
“Beyond that, it is a very important scheme for fostering national unity. The issues that the NYSC sought to address since it was created in 1973, at the end of the civil war, are still there. So, we think it remains relevant.
“But we need to be responsible. We need to understand that it is also about the lives of other people, more than anything else. It is a different country today from what it was many years ago.”
The ADC spokesman criticised the Federal Government’s handling of insecurity, accusing President Bola Tinubu of blaming security agencies rather than addressing weaknesses in the country’s security architecture, even when the security personnel are also not properly prepared or equipped for this.
He wondered how the kidnappers were able to intercept the prospective corps members, noting: “If many corps members can be abducted at once, somebody must have given information to the people who carried out the abduction and no one was able to stop them.”
The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and Labour Party (LP) also condemned the abduction, demanding the immediate and safe rescue of the prospective corps members.
The NDC National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, said government had a constitutional responsibility to protect the lives and property of Nigerians, adding: “We should not play with the lives and security of our children, as they are the future of the country.
“The primary purpose of government as enshrined in Section 14(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is the security of lives and property of the citizens.”
His Labour Party counterpart, Ken Asogwa, lamented that the victims could be abandoned like other Nigerians still in captivity, saying: “As we speak, kidnapped Niger State school pupils are still in captivity and the nation seems to have moved on.
“I hope that Nigeria will not also abandon these innocent corps members whose only offence was enrolment into the mandatory NYSC scheme.”
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) spokesman, Rufus Aiyenigba, said “an SDP-led Federal Government will certainly come up with practical reforms of the NYSC scheme in a manner that will reduce the associated risks for participants and enhance its mandate delivery beyond the yearly rituals.”
National Publicity Secretary of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Wale Egbeola-Martins, said the NYSC was long overdue for comprehensive reform, noting that the scheme was established for a different era and its objectives “must now be reimagined to reflect the realities and needs of contemporary Nigeria.”
He stated that rather than exposing young graduates to unnecessary security risks through compulsory deployment to distant and sometimes volatile locations, the scheme should become more innovation and entrepreneurship-driven.
On his part, rights activist and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in next year’s general elections, Omoyele Sowore, called for the scrapping of the scheme, arguing that the scheme had “outlived its usefulness in its current form.”
Writing on X handle on Sunday, Sowore said: “You cannot force young Nigerians to ‘serve their fatherland’ when the same country cannot guarantee their safety while they travel to their places of service.
“The NYSC should be suspended immediately and ultimately scrapped. In the meantime, all corps members should be given the option to serve within their states of origin.”
