By BONIFACE AKARAH

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (InterSociety) has questioned accounts given by security agencies over the abduction of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and other travellers in Imo State, saying it would rely more on accounts from victims, their families and transport operators.

In a statement issued from Onitsha on Saturday, October 3, 2026, and signed by its officials, the group said its recent findings across Nigeria had raised concerns about the reliability of incident reports and casualty figures released by the police, military and intelligence agencies.

The group alleged that independent accounts, particularly those provided by victims, their families and vehicle operators, were often more reliable than official security reports.

“By our several findings across Nigeria in recent times, crime scene incidents including abduction scene accounts and figures given by the Nigerian security forces particularly police, military and intelligence establishments have been found to be widely unbelievable and unreliable,” InterSociety said.

It alleged that security agencies sometimes promoted what it described as false accounts of operational success while also manipulating casualty or incident figures and suppressing information.

“In the South-East, false labeling, ethno-religious profiling, hasty and hearsay conclusions, class stigmatization and mass criminalization have remained their stock-in-trade in matters of criminal intelligence gathering and criminal investigations,” the organisation alleged.

InterSociety further alleged that operational loopholes had affected some security agencies’ reported rescue operations in parts of the Middle Belt, South-South and South-East.

It cited incidents in Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Enugu and Imo, alleging that reports from security agencies in some of those locations had contained conflicting accounts.

The organisation also referred to the August 2026 abductions in Kogi and Benue States, including the reported abduction of 15 NYSC members.

According to InterSociety, some families had subsequently disputed security agencies’ claims that their relatives had been rescued, insisting that the victims remained in captivity.

It cited the case of an Anambra family whose daughter, originally from Nri and married in Enugu-Ukwu, was allegedly among those abducted. The group claimed the family launched an appeal for funds to pay ransom after security agencies had reportedly claimed the woman was among those rescued.

InterSociety, however, acknowledged that there had been security rescue operations it regarded as credible, specifically mentioning the rescue of abducted schoolchildren in Oyo State.

“However, one of the very few recent unquestionable rescue operation reports announced by security forces was the rescue of the abducted school children in Oyo State,” the organisation said.

The group alleged that many other security operations in the South-East had been accompanied by what it described as disfigurement of facts and cover-ups.

It further alleged that some security agencies had been accused of protecting what it called “jihadist Fulani Herdsmen” and their activities in the region, claims that were presented by the organisation as part of its assessment of security operations in the South-East.

InterSociety also alleged that some attacks attributed by security agencies to “IPOB/ESN” or “unknown gunmen of Igbo extraction” had instead been linked by non-state actors to other perpetrators.

The organisation said It had received feedback from relatives of kidnapping victims who allegedly contacted the group after speaking with abducted family members or receiving calls from kidnappers.

According to the group, some of those families claimed they were advised by persons they believed were close to security establishments to avoid identifying Fulani herdsmen when reporting abductions to security agencies.

“Such families, advised by InterSociety to contact the police or other security agencies; after informing us that their abducted relatives called from Jihadist Fulani kidnappers, got back to us to inform us that ‘they have been strongly advised by some persons closed to security quarters in the South-East to avoid mentioning Fulani Herdsmen when contacting the police or army or intelligence establishments, especially if they wanted their reported matters to be handled’,” the statement said.

InterSociety said the accounts remained allegations and attributed them to feedback it claimed to have received from affected families.

On the current Imo State abduction involving NYSC members and other travellers, the group said it would give greater weight to independent accounts than reports from security agencies.

“InterSociety therefore makes bold to say that we are trusting independent accounts particularly in the ongoing handling of the abducted NYSC Corpers and other travelers in Imo State than those being dished out by security forces particularly the police and the military,” the organisation said.

It listed the accounts It considered important, including information from victims’ families about their identities and original travel arrangements, passenger manifests and other records from the owners or managers of the affected buses.

The group also said accounts from victims who were eventually freed or rescued would be important in establishing who abducted them, how they were treated in captivity and how their release was secured.

“Such trusted and believable independent accounts include: independent accounts from families of the victims; accounts from the owners and managements of the abducted buses; and independent accounts of those eventually freed or rescued,” InterSociety said.

The statement was signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chair; Chidinma Evangeline Udegbunam, Head of Campaign and Publicity; Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Head of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law; and Samuel Kamanyaoku, Head of Field Data Collection.

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