They had just finished three weeks of camp. Marching, chanting the anthem, making friends they’d probably keep for life the usual NYSC send-off. Then, on the drive back to Abuja, gunmen turned that journey into a nightmare.
Here’s everything confirmed so far about the abduction of 15 corps members travelling from the NYSC orientation camp in Bayelsa State.
On Wednesday, gunmen ambushed two buses carrying newly-orientated corps members along the Ofu/Itobe–Onicha-Igo axis in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State. The victims were travelling from the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State where they’d just completed their mandatory three-week camping exercise en route to Abuja.
According to the Kogi State Police Command, the attack took place at around 4:40pm near Ogene Zaria, at the Ogene Zaria/Onicha-Igo Junction. Gunmen reportedly emerged from the bush and blocked two buses travelling in opposite directions before abducting passengers from both a Peace Mass Transit white Hummer bus and a yellow 18-seater bus, matching the vehicles making the rounds on social media as the incident broke.
The victims belonged to the NYSC’s 2026 Batch ‘B’ Stream II and had reportedly just concluded their orientation camp activities before setting off on the journey home.
Witnesses say the attackers communicated in a mix of Fulfulde, Hausa, and English. The driver of the Peace Mass Transit bus was injured in the attack and taken to hospital for treatment.
Word of the abduction first spread through relatives before police confirmed it. A family member of one of the victims told the Foundation for Investigative Journalism that his brother, identified as Ayodele David, was among those taken. A separate video circulating on social media showed a young woman pleading for help after her sister also a corps member who had just completed camp in Bayelsa and was heading to Niger State for her Place of Primary Assignment was reportedly seized in the same attack.
The pattern echoes a route thousands of corps members travel every service year: Bayelsa camp, overnight stop in Abuja, then onward to their assigned states. It’s a corridor that’s now under scrutiny after this attack.
