A prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member abducted in Imo State has recounted the harrowing conditions she and other victims endured in captivity, revealing that their captors fed them dry garri and dirty, muddy water before security operatives secured their release.

The victim disclosed this in an interview with the BBC, describing how the abductors beat, threatened and psychologically tormented the hostages during their captivity in a forest.

“What we are eating there is just garri. Like Igbo garri, dry garri with mud water. Very dirty water,” she said.

“I can’t even give my enemy that water. We don’t have a choice, we have to take it for survival.”

The abductors reportedly allowed the victims to call their families but monitored their conversations and punished anyone whose relatives said anything that angered them.

“We are given a phone to call our family, and if any family say anything they don’t want to hear or any rubbish that would make them angry, we will be beaten,” she said.

She added that the kidnappers used guns, sticks and their bare hands to assault victims, particularly the male hostages.

Recounting the circumstances surrounding the abduction, the survivor said their bus left at about 9 a.m. and made several stops along the journey.

According to her, the driver eventually stopped at a location considered unsafe for further travel, and the passengers were advised to rest before continuing their journey.

She said she contacted her family to explain that they would spend the night at a public place before going to sleep.

However, she woke up to find herself in the kidnappers’ custody, unable to understand how she and the other passengers had been taken into the forest.

“When I woke up, that was when the incident happened. I don’t know how we got to the forest where we were kept for some time,” she said.

The victim described the psychological impact of the ordeal, saying she was initially too bewildered to cry or understand what was happening.

“I can’t explain how I felt. I can’t even cry, I was just looking, I was lost. I don’t know what to do,” she said.

“It felt like it was a movie. I don’t believe that this is happening to me.”

She said the experience was so surreal that she struggled to believe she would survive it.

The survivor credited the government and personnel of the Department of State Services (DSS) with securing their freedom.

“The government, the DSS staff, we were rescued by them,” she said.

The 20 prospective corps members and another passenger were abducted on October 1, 2026, when gunmen attacked two buses travelling along the Owerri-Onitsha Road near Umunoha in Imo State.

The victims were travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to their respective NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states when the incident occurred.

They regained their freedom on October 7 following a coordinated security operation and were taken to a DSS medical facility in Owerri for medical attention.

The abduction sparked concerns over the safety of prospective corps members travelling to orientation camps and renewed attention on the security risks facing travellers along the route.