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The Department of State Services (DSS), Tuesday October 20, 2026, in Imo state, arraigned three people accused of the Independence Day kidnapping of 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members in the state.
Also arraigned were two others accused of kidnapping four people in the state, four days after the Independence Day abduction.
The five defendants face charges of conspiracy, hostage-taking and unlawful possession of firearms.
Three of them, Usman Aliyu, 25, also known as Change; Babangida Aliyu, 21; and 23-year-old Mohammed Ali aka Smallie Pepper, were specifically charged with the kidnap of the prospective corps’ members.
Their charges include hostage taking punishable under 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 still at large, of abducting the victims along the Owerri–Mgbidi–Onitsha Expressway on October 1, 2026
They were travelling from Ibadan to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states, and were subsequently rescued after seven days.
According to the charge sheet filed at the Imo State High Court, Oru Judicial Division, Mgbidi, the defendants were accused of unlawfully possessing three AK-47 rifles, four magazines, a pistol and eighty-one rounds of live ammunition.
In a related case, 27-year-old Aminu Haliru and 20-year-old Tange Ibrahim aka Jijji, were accused of abducting four people around Owerri and Mgbidi on October 4, 2026.
Prosecutors allege that Haliru, Ibrahim, and others still at large, collected N8 million to release the four victims.
They also face a charge of unlawfully possessing one AK-47 rifle and a pump-action gun.
The prosecution listed N1.8 million as money recovered in the second case, while a DSS investigator and the victims are listed as witnesses in both cases.
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