Five men accused of abducting 20 prospective corps members and four other travellers in Imo State were arraigned on Tuesday by the Department of State Services. The arraignment came almost three weeks after the Independence Day attack that left families in Oyo State waiting a week for news of their children. The defendants appeared before the Imo State High Court, Oru Judicial Division, Mgbidi, in two separate cases, facing charges of conspiracy, hostage taking and unlawful possession of firearms.
According to the charge sheet, three of the defendants, Usman Aliyu, 25, also known as Chonge; Babangida Aliyu, 21; and Mohammed Ali, 23, also known as Smallie Pepper, are accused of abducting the prospective corps members along the Owerri-Mgbidi-Onitsha Expressway on October 1. The DSS said they were charged with conspiracy to commit hostage taking, an offence punishable under Section 6 of the Imo State Prohibition of Hostage Taking and Related Offences Law No. 4 of 2009. The service also accused them of unlawfully possessing three AK-47 rifles, four magazines, a pistol and 81 rounds of live ammunition.
In the second case, Aminu Haliru, 27, and Tange Ibrahim, 20, also known as Jijji, are accused of abducting four people around Owerri and Mgbidi on October 4. The prosecution alleged that the pair and others still at large collected N8m for the victims’ release, and listed N1.8m as money recovered. Both men are also accused of possessing an AK-47 rifle and a pump action gun. A DSS investigator and the victims are listed as witnesses in both cases.
The graduates were travelling from Ibadan to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states for the 2026 Batch C Stream One exercise when gunmen stopped their two buses near Umunoha in Mbaitoli Local Government Area. The Defence Headquarters said the buses carried 30 passengers, 20 of whom were taken away. Ten others, including eight prospective corps members, were rescued unharmed by troops shortly after the attack.
The captives spent seven days in the bush. The Nigeria Police Force, through its spokesperson, CSP Ani Iniedu, said they were rescued on October 7 at Amakohia Ubi in Owerri West Local Government Area during a joint operation with other security agencies. They were treated at a DSS medical facility in Owerri before returning to Ibadan the following day.
How the release was secured remains unclear. Some families have said they paid ransoms of between N3m and N6m before the victims were freed, a claim that has not been independently verified. Security agencies have consistently described the outcome as a rescue.
The case sits within a much wider pattern documented by the National Bureau of Statistics. Its Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey, released in December 2024, estimated 2,235,954 kidnapping incidents nationwide between May 2023 and April 2024. Among households that experienced kidnapping, 65 per cent paid a ransom, with an average payment of N2,670,693 and an estimated total of N2.23 trillion within the 12 months.
The bureau’s figures also show where the burden falls. Rural areas accounted for 1,668,104 of the kidnapping incidents, about three in every four nationally, although urban households paid more on average, at N3.7m against N2.3m in rural areas. About 91 per cent of kidnappings were carried out for ransom in money, goods or other benefits, and 80.5 per cent of affected households reported the incident to the police.
The South-East is not the zone worst hit by crime overall. The NBS survey recorded 6.18 million household crime incidents in the zone, the lowest of the six, compared with 14.4 million in the North-West. However, the October 1 abduction showed how a single attack on a busy highway can affect families hundreds of kilometres away, in this case in Oyo State.
For prospective corps members, the road to camp has repeatedly proved a point of danger. Many graduates posted outside their home regions travel long distances in commercial buses, often crossing several states in a day. In August 2024, 20 medical students travelling to a convention in Enugu were abducted in Benue State before security agencies secured their release days later.
The prosecution said other members of both gangs remain at large. The police have said operations are continuing to bring everyone involved to justice. Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma has commended the security agencies and the Oyo State Government for their roles in securing the victims’ release.