‘We Drank Dry Garri With Mud Water’ – Kidnapped NYSC Member Reveals

One of the prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members rescued in Imo State has described how their abductors beat them and forced them to survive on dry garri and dirty water in a forest.

Speaking in a BBC interview, the victim said the kidnappers monitored calls to their families and assaulted captives whenever they were displeased with the conversations.

She was among 20 prospective corps members and another passenger abducted on October 1, 2026, while travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.

The victim said the abductors provided a phone for contacting relatives but punished captives over remarks made during the calls.

She said, “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.

“That person will be beaten, used the gun, wood. Sometimes they use their hands to punch them, mostly the guys.”

Recounting the journey, she said their bus departed at about 9 a.m. and stopped several times before the driver halted because the next stretch was considered dangerous.

She said passengers were advised to rest before continuing. She told her family they would spend the night in a public place, then went to sleep.

“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 said they were later moved deeper into the forest, where food and drinking water were scarce.

She further stated, “What we are eating there is just garri. Like Igbo garri, dry garri with mud water. Very dirty water. I can’t even give my enemy that water. We don’t have a choice, we have to take it for survival.”

She also recalled feeling helpless and struggling to comprehend the ordeal.

The victim said, “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.

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

The prospective corps member said she feared she would not survive captivity.

She credited security personnel, including operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), with their freedom.

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

The victims were abducted when gunmen attacked two buses along the Owerri-Onitsha Road near Umunoha in Imo State.

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