{"id":2184654,"date":"2026-10-07T21:30:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T18:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2184654"},"modified":"2026-10-07T21:30:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T18:30:57","slug":"group-of-20-graduates-rescued-after-being-abducted-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2184654","title":{"rendered":"Group of 20 graduates rescued after being abducted in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/dd03\/live\/fa2250d0-c293-11f1-84bb-6b5ebffa66ad.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"ReutersReuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Nigerian police, pictured at the site of a previous abduction in June, said they rescued the young people<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A group of 20 young people who were abducted in South-East Nigeria last week have been rescued, police say.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The graduates were kidnapped on 1 October while they were travelling for a national community service programme in the Abia and Akwa Ibom states in the south of the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They were rescued by the police with the assistance of other security agencies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Police spokesman Ani Iniedu said in a statement on Wednesday the group were rescued at Amakohia Ubi in Imo State after a sustained search-and-rescue operation. The group are being looked after and have been taken for medical evaluation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The police, military and other security agencies conducted intelligence-led searches of forests and suspected hideouts, he said, but he did not say whether any ransom was paid or if any arrests had been made.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The group of young people were participating in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), which is a compulsory one-year community service programme for most Nigerian university graduates, where people are posted to different parts of the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The group were travelling in two buses travelling on a major highway from Ibadan in southwestern Oyo state to NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states when gunmen attacked the vehicles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The incident has reignited concerns over insecurity and kidnapping along roads in the South-East.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Before they were released, the father of one of the people who were abducted, Omotosho Adewale, told the BBC that the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of 50m naira ($37,680; \u00a328,440), which he could not afford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“There’s no peace of mind. I’ve not eaten in three days,” he said in between tears.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kidnapping for ransom is a major security problem in Nigeria, involving criminal gangs and armed groups. The authorities have not released any information about the identity of the attackers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cqm26ee4gl21o”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/dd03\/live\/fa2250d0-c293-11f1-84bb-6b5ebffa66ad.jpg”] Reuters Nigerian police, pictured at the site of a previous abduction in June, said they rescued the young people A group of 20 young people who were abducted in South-East Nigeria last week have been rescued, police say. The graduates were kidnapped on 1 October while they were travelling for a national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2184654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2184654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2184654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2184654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2184654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2184654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2184654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}