Barely four months after, the eight Akwa Ibom State graduates abducted on their way to the National Youth Service Corps orientation camp in Sokoto State have yet to be released.
The fresh graduates were abducted by gunmen on August 17, on a highway in Zamfara State.
The prospective corps members from Akwa Ibom State were travelling in an AKTC bus to Sokoto State for the mandatory national youth service programme for Nigerian graduates.
Since their abduction, parents and relatives of the victims have been expressing concerns that the NYSC authorities and security agencies were not doing enough to secure the release of their children.
In September, the parents took to the street to protest, saying they had spent over N13m in an effort to have their children back.
The kidnappers had demanded that the parents of each of the abductees should pay a ransom of N10m, an amount the parents said they could not raise.
Despite the assurances from security agents that the victims would be released, none of them has been freed as of December 4, 2023.
Meanwhile, Nigerians have taken to the social media to bemoan the inability of government and security agents to rescue the young graduates who were on their way to serve their fatherland.
An X user with the username, @Isidore0001, said: “It is heartbreaking to note that those NYSC members from Akwa Ibom, kidnapped in August on their way to camp, are still in captivity till date; brutalised and raped every day, yet we all moved on. Govt, NYSC, Nigerians, Nigeria failed these youths.”
Another user, @kikkysamuel, stated: “The kidnappers are demanding N10million each from someone that took the risk of travelling from Uyo to Sokoto by road; if they had N10million, they wouldn’t do that.”
@eunice30116 disclosed that “My brother is still there,” wondering how their mother who sells oranges and akara would be able to afford N10m.
The Nigeria Police Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, has yet to reply to a text message sent to him by our correspondent as of the time of filing this report.
Some Nigerians have called for the scrapping of the NYSC scheme, while some others opined that individuals be allowed to serve in their geopolitical zones or states.