In order to ensure the safe release of twenty potential corps members of Oyo State origin who were kidnaped in Imo State, the Oyo State Government announced on Sunday that it was collaborating closely with the Imo State Government and pertinent security agencies.

The government said it was keeping close government-to-government contact with the Imo State Government and actively interacting with the security apparatus in both Oyo and Imo states in a statement released in Ibadan, the state capital, by Commissioner for Information Dotun Oyelade.

Oyelade said, “Oyo State is volunteering the templates and experiences it garnered during the Oriire kidnapping incident,” noting that “the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the abduction, submitted last week by the Hon. Justice (Professor) Mojeed Owoade-led panel, is also useful in the ongoing bilateral discussions.”

On Thursday, gunmen attacked the two busses carrying the twenty graduates from Ibadan to their NYSC orientation camps in Umunoha, Imo State, along the Owerri-Onitsha Road.

According to reports, the kidnappers demanded N50 million for each victim, totaling N1 billion.

This was confirmed on Friday by Isiah Akpan, Managing Director of Uko Akwa Ibom Motors Nigeria Limited.

In a statement released on Sunday, Oyelade clarified that governments typically do not reveal every action being taken in sensitive security situations, especially when doing so could jeopardize ongoing operations.

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