A prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member abducted in Imo State has recounted the horrifying experience of being held captive in a forest, where she and other victims were forced to survive on dry garri and muddy water before security operatives, including personnel of the Department of State Services (DSS), rescued them.
The victim, speaking in an interview with the BBC, said their captors subjected them to physical abuse, threats and psychological torture while monitoring phone calls they made to their families.
According to her, the kidnappers beat victims whenever their conversations with relatives displeased them, using guns, sticks and their bare hands.
“We are given a phone to call our family, and if any family say anything they don’t want to hear or any rubbish that would make them angry, we will be beaten,” she said.
“That person will be beaten, used the gun, wood. Sometimes they use their hands to punch them, mostly the guys.”
She said the victims were given little food and forced to drink water contaminated with mud to stay alive during their captivity.
“What we are eating there is just garri. Like Igbo garri, dry garri with mud water. Very dirty water,” she recounted.
“I can’t even give my enemy that water. We don’t have a choice, we have to take it for survival.”
The survivor also described the confusion and emotional trauma she experienced after realising she had been taken hostage.
She said their bus had departed at about 9 a.m. and made several stops during the journey. At one point, the driver stopped at a location considered dangerous for onward travel, and the passengers were advised to rest before continuing.
She had contacted her family to inform them that they would spend the night at a public place before going to sleep.
However, she said she woke up to discover that she and the other passengers had been taken captive, although she could not explain how they were transported into the forest.
“When I woke up, that was when the incident happened. I don’t know how we got to the forest where we were kept for some time,” she said.
The victim said the experience left her bewildered and struggling to process what was happening.
“I can’t explain how I felt. I can’t even cry, I was just looking, I was lost. I don’t know what to do,” she said.
“It felt like it was a movie. I don’t believe that this is happening to me.”
She added that surviving the ordeal had seemed almost impossible at the time.
“I don’t believe that I will be living there on that day, because everything just felt like it was some drama,” she said.
The survivor credited the government and security personnel, particularly DSS operatives, with securing their freedom.
“The government, the DSS staff, we were rescued by them,” she said.
The 20 prospective corps members and another passenger were abducted on October 1, 2026, when gunmen attacked two buses along the Owerri-Onitsha Road near Umunoha in Imo State.
The victims were travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to their respective NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states when the attack occurred.
They regained their freedom on October 7 following a coordinated security operation and were subsequently taken to a DSS medical facility in Owerri for medical attention.
Their abduction sparked concerns over the safety of prospective corps members travelling to orientation camps, with renewed calls for stronger security measures on major highways.