The Abia State Police Command says operatives have recovered 28 human skulls and other bones from two abandoned criminal camps in forests around Umuaku-Isuochi and Nneato, in Umunneochi Local Government Area of the state.
According to a statement by the command’s spokesperson, DSP Maureen Chinaka, the remains were found during an intelligence-led raid that formed part of a wider operation against suspected hideouts in the area. She said the occupants fled before the operatives arrived, leaving the camps deserted.
“A total of twenty-eight (28) human skulls and bones, which we suspect are kidnap victims, were recovered,” Chinaka said. She added that some of the remains were already decomposed.
The police said the raid was carried out under a campaign the command has titled “Operation No Hideout for Criminal Elements in the State”, on the directive of the Commissioner of Police, CP Wilfred Afolabi. Chinaka listed the units involved as the Violent Crime Response Unit, Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Anti-Cultism Unit, Intelligence Response Unit, Rapid Response Squad and the Isuochi Police Headquarters.
Accounts of the raid date vary slightly. The command’s statement, issued on Sunday, 27 September 2026, referred to operations conducted that day, while one broadcast account placed the exercise on Saturday. The command has not publicly reconciled the two.
By the police account, the operatives moved on the suspected camps following intelligence on criminal activity, and the suspects scattered on sighting them. “Upon arrival of the Command tactical operatives at the camps, the suspects ran. The criminal camps were subsequently scattered,” Chinaka said.
The command said no arrest had been made, as the occupants escaped before the operatives reached the sites. It said monitoring of the area was continuing and that efforts to trace the fleeing suspects had been intensified.
Several claims in the statement remain unverified. The number of victims, their identities, how they died, and whether the camps were used by kidnappers are matters the command itself described as still under investigation. The suggestion that the remains belong to abduction victims is, at this stage, the command’s suspicion rather than an established finding.
That distinction matters because the location sits in a part of the South East that has drawn repeated security operations in recent years. Isuochi, in Umunneochi, borders Enugu and Anambra States and lies along corridors that security agencies have long linked to kidnapping and cult-related activity. The command framed the raid as part of a sustained push to deny such groups cover in the forests.
Chinaka said the police were appealing to residents to share information on suspicious movements, and gave an assurance that operations would continue until the area was cleared. She said the command intended to make Abia difficult ground for criminal elements to operate.
For now, the case rests almost entirely on the command’s own account. No independent confirmation of the number of remains has been published, and no forensic timeline has been released to indicate how long the bones had been at the sites. The identities of the dead, and any link to specific missing-persons reports, will depend on the investigation the command says is underway.
What is confirmed is limited but serious. The police have stated that human remains were recovered, that the camps were found abandoned, and that no suspect is yet in custody. Whether the recovery leads to identification of victims, arrests, or a fuller picture of what happened in the forests will turn on the progress of that investigation and any post-mortem or DNA work that follows.
The command has not said whether the remains have been moved for examination, nor named the agency that will conduct any forensic analysis. Those steps would ordinarily determine how many individuals the bones represent and how recently the deaths occurred, questions the current count of skulls alone cannot settle.