DSS docks 5 for kidnapping of 20 youth corpers, others in Imo

The Department of State Services (DSS), Tuesday October 20, 2026, in Imo state, arraigned three individuals accused of the Independence Day kidnapping of 20 potential National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members within the state.

Also arraigned had been two others accused of kidnapping 4 individuals within the state, 4 days after the Independence Day abduction.

The 5 defendants face prices of conspiracy, hostage-taking and illegal possession of firearms.

Three of them, Usman Aliyu, 25, also called Change; Babangida Aliyu, 21; and 23-year-old Mohammed Ali aka Smallie Pepper, had been particularly charged with the kidnap of the potential corps’ members.

Their prices embrace hostage taking punishable underneath Section 6 of the Imo State Prohibition of Hostage Taking and Related Offences Law No. 4 of 2009.

The DSS prosecutors accused the trio and others nonetheless at massive, of abducting the victims alongside the Owerri–Mgbidi–Onitsha Expressway on October 1, 2026

They had been travelling from Ibadan to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states, and had been subsequently rescued after seven days.

According to the cost sheet filed on the Imo State High Court, Oru Judicial Division, Mgbidi, the defendants had been accused of unlawfully possessing three AK-47 rifles, 4 magazines, a pistol and eighty-one rounds of reside ammunition.

In a associated case, 27-year-old Aminu Haliru and 20-year-old Tange Ibrahim aka Jijji, had been accused of abducting 4 individuals round Owerri and Mgbidi on October 4, 2026.

Prosecutors allege that Haliru, Ibrahim, and others nonetheless at massive, collected N8 million to launch the 4 victims.

They additionally face a cost of unlawfully possessing one AK-47 rifle and a pump-action gun.

The prosecution listed N1.8 million as cash recovered within the second case, whereas a DSS investigator and the victims are listed as witnesses in each instances.