Nigerian police say explosives blocking rescue of kidnapped youth corps recruits

Police in Nigeria say they have found a camp where 19 prospective members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) are being held captive, but cannot carry out a rescue because the site is believed to be mined with explosives.

Police Commissioner Audu Bosso said drones were used to locate the camp, where the recruits were taken after being abducted last week in Imo state, in the south-east of the country. The precise location of the camp has not been made public, and police have not named any suspects in the kidnapping.

The father of one of the abducted recruits, Omotosho Adewale, told the BBC that the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of 50 million naira, equivalent to around $37,680 or £28,440, an amount he said he was unable to pay. He described being unable to sleep or eat since the abduction and said he was appealing to the government to intervene.

The recruits had been travelling from Ibadan in south-western Nigeria to NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states when their buses came under attack by gunmen near Umunoha in Imo state last Thursday.