Abduction Of NYSC Members En Route Abia: SDP’s Adewole Adebayo Calls For Immediate Rescue, Comprehensive Policy Reforms To Ensure Corpers’ Safety
The Adewole Adebayo-Bugaje Presidential Campaign Organisation of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has expressed deep outrage, unreserved condemnation and grave concern over the “harrowing” abduction of travelling National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members.
The victims, primarily young graduates from Oyo State’s tertiary institutions traveling from Ibadan, were ambushed by heavily armed gunmen at about 6:30am on Thursday, October 1, 2026, along the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway around the Umunoha community axis in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State while heading to the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp in Bende, Abia State.
“This cowardly attack on young citizens serving their fatherland is an unacceptable assault on the nation’s future,” the SDP Presidential Candidate fumed, in his strongly-worded statement issued today Friday by Comrade Mark Adebayo, Head of the Media and Communications Directorate.
The SDP Presidential Candidate, Adewole Adebayo, issued an urgent demand to the nation’s security apparatus.
While acknowledging that security operatives swiftly rescued 10 victims after the incident, Adebayo demanded that the Inspector-General of Police, the military high command, and the Imo State Commissioner of Police deploy every available rapid response facility to secure the immediate, unconditional and safe rescue of the remaining corps members still held in captivity.
“We cannot fold our arms while the youth of this nation, who have committed themselves to national integration and service, are hunted down like game on public highways,” Adebayo stated.
“Our security agencies must act with absolute urgency. This is a race against time, and no stone must be left unturned until every single corps member is brought back alive.”
Adebayo explicitly called out the governors of Anambra, Abia States and their counterparts in neighbouring Imo State to immediately halt all political, administrative, and ceremonial engagements for the sole purpose of coordinating the efforts to rescue the youth corpers.
“I am calling on the governors of Anambra, Abia, and Imo states to drop everything they are doing right now. Shut down governance if you must, suspend political bickerings, and concentrate 100% of your state security resources on rescuing these young Nigerians. The primary purpose of government is the security and welfare of the people. Right now, your children are in the den of kidnappers; nothing else should matter until they are safely recovered,” Adebayo said.
