Prospective NYSC members abducted along the Onitsha-Owerri Road in Imo State have thrown families into distress following a coordinated highway ambush by armed attackers on Thursday, October 1.

The victims were intercepted in commercial buses while travelling to various National Youth Service Corps orientation camps across the South-East and South-South regions. Gunmen reportedly blocked the expressway, halted several vehicles, and forced passengers and their drivers into nearby forests.

The exact number of abducted passengers remains unconfirmed as security operatives comb the border communities.

Eyewitness accounts indicate that many victims had boarded commercial vehicles operated by Uko Akwa Ibom Motors at the Samonda motor park in Ibadan, Oyo State.

They were en route to orientation facilities in Akwa Ibom, Imo, Enugu, and Abia states before falling into the ambush.

Footage circulating online captured abandoned vehicles left along the highway, with an escaped passenger recounting how both the drivers and occupants of preceding buses were taken away.

According to field reports monitored by The Sun, panicked parents gathered at the departure terminal in Ibadan after one traveller sent a brief text reading “kidnapper” before their line went silent.

Tactical police units and joint military patrols have intensified search operations within the surrounding corridors to track the assailants and secure the release of the travelers.