Gunmen abducted at least 15 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members along the Ofu/Itobe–Onicha-Igo axis in Kogi State on Wednesday, as the corps members travelled from their orientation camp in Bayelsa State toward Abuja. The victims, members of the 2026 Batch ‘B’ Stream II, had just finished their three-week orientation at the NYSC camp in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area when their two buses were ambushed.
Armed men emerged from the bush near Ogene Zaria and blocked both vehicles, a Peace Mass Transit bus and a smaller 18-seater, abducting several passengers while others managed to escape into the surrounding bush. One of the passengers who escaped was reportedly shot and wounded by the attackers during the struggle to get away. The Kogi State Police Command confirmed the attack and said 11 of the victims, including both bus drivers, had since been rescued in a joint operation with the military. Accounts of what happened to the drivers differ: one report said a driver was badly injured and taken to hospital, while a relative of one of the missing corps members alleged the driver was killed in the attack. Police say the exact number of victims still being held has not been confirmed, and at least one abductor has reportedly demanded a ransom of N20 million.
A relative of one of the missing corps members, identified as Chidimma, shared a video online appealing to the government, the NYSC and the public to help rescue her sister, who had completed orientation in Bayelsa and was on her way to her assignment in Niger State when the attackers struck. Her video has drawn widespread concern online.
A Recurring Nightmare: Corps Members Have Been Kidnapped Before, And Some Are Still Missing
This is not an isolated incident. In August 2023, eight corps members travelling from Akwa Ibom State to their orientation camp in Sokoto were abducted by gunmen in Zamfara State. Two were later freed, reportedly after ransom was paid, but the remaining victims spent months in captivity while their families accused the authorities of abandoning them. As recently as March this year, prospective corps members travelling to orientation camp were abducted by gunmen along the Abuja-Kaduna road, a route already notorious for repeated kidnappings.
These are not one-off tragedies. No fewer than 83 corps members were reportedly kidnapped in 2023 alone, on top of cases recorded in 2025 and this year. Kogi’s highways in particular have seen a string of attacks in recent weeks: on 9 August, gunmen abducted commuters along two roads in Ofu Local Government Area, and troops later rescued 16 victims in a gun battle that killed a local hunter and injured a police officer.
What Makes These Highways So Dangerous — And What It’s Costing Nigeria
Corps members are especially vulnerable because the one-year national service scheme, by design, sends young graduates to unfamiliar states far from home, often travelling long distances by road through areas they do not know are dangerous. Kidnapping gangs have increasingly targeted these highway routes because buses full of young travellers, often carrying phones, laptops and other valuables, make attractive and relatively undefended targets in areas where security patrols are thin.
The cost of this insecurity goes beyond the individual families waiting for news of their loved ones. Each new abduction chips away at public confidence in a scheme that was originally designed to unite Nigerian youths from different regions and build national cohesion after the civil war. The pan-Yoruba group Afenifere has renewed calls for a complete overhaul of NYSC’s posting policy, arguing that corps members should serve within their own states, states of residence, or at worst their geopolitical zones, rather than being sent across the country into unfamiliar, high-risk terrain. For Nigeria as a whole, the repeated targeting of young graduates on national service feeds a broader narrative of insecurity that discourages investment, damages the country’s international image, and adds to the enormous, largely uncounted economic cost of Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis.
Protecting Nigeria’s Youth Corps Will Take More Than Rescue Operations
Security analysts and advocacy groups have repeatedly called for stronger protection along known kidnapping corridors, including more visible security patrols, escorts for NYSC transport, and better coordination between the police, army and local vigilante groups, the kind of joint response that helped rescue some victims in this latest attack. Advocates also argue that NYSC and transport operators should be required to enforce stricter travel safety rules, including avoiding night travel on high-risk routes and installing tracking systems on official corps member buses.
Beyond emergency response, the deeper fix many are demanding is structural: reforming where and how corps members are posted, so young Nigerians are not routinely sent through some of the country’s most dangerous highways as a matter of course. Without that kind of change, officials warn, rescue operations will keep responding to abductions rather than preventing the next one.
A System We Keep Failing To Protect
It is hard not to feel a familiar dread reading this story. A young Nigerian finishes her orientation camp, excited to start her career, and within hours becomes another name in a growing list of corps members taken from Nigerian highways. Her sister’s video, pleading for help, echoes almost word for word the pleas we have heard from other families since 2023.
We think Nigeria owes its young graduates more than sympathy after each attack. The NYSC scheme was built on the idea that serving the nation should bring young people together safely, not put their lives at risk simply for finishing school. Until the roads corps members are made to travel are genuinely secured, or the posting system that sends them down those roads is reformed, stories like Chidimma’s sister will keep repeating, and each time, another family will be left waiting by a phone that may never ring with good news.
Published by Ejoh Caleb
