The long days of fear gave way to tears of relief yesterday.

Families of 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members learnt that their children had regained freedom after seven days in captivity.

For parents who had spent sleepless nights wondering whether their children were alive and what they might be going through, the news brought an emotional reprieve.

But for some, the joy remained incomplete as they were yet to speak directly with their children, who were receiving medical attention after their release.

The 20 prospective Corps members were abducted on October 1 while travelling from Ibadan to resume at their NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.

They were travelling in two buses when armed men intercepted them in Umunoha, Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State, and forced them into the bush.

Thirty of them were in the travelling party before being seized by the kidnappers.

Ten of them escaped while the remaining 20 were taken into captivity.

The victims finally regained freedom yesterday at Amakohia-Ubi Village in Owerri West Local Government Area of Imo State.

The police spoke about how the victims were rescued in collaboration with sister security agencies – the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Air Force, the Nigerian Navy and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) – after sustained search-and-rescue operations.

The police, in a statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Anietie Iniedu, said: “The victims were rescued and sustained operations and efforts were ongoing to arrest those responsible.”

Imo State Commissioner of Police, Audu Garba Bosso, said the rescue operation was based on intelligence that enabled security agencies to identify the location where the victims were being held.

According to him, operatives moved to the area as part of the search and rescue operation, forcing the criminals to flee while the victims were rescued.

He said: “Our intelligence-led policing gets us in touch with other security agencies.

“All worked in synergy. Having gotten the locations, we moved as per our search and rescue operations. We got to the community where they were kept in captivity. The criminals fled, and we were able to rescue the victims.”

The victims have since been taken for medical assessment and necessary care.

NYSC Director-General, Brigadier General Olakunle Oluseye Nafiu, visited them at the Department of State Services (DSS) Clinic in Owerri.

He was accompanied by the Imo State Commissioner of Police, the state DSS director and the Commander, 34 Artillery Brigade.

But while the police and Imo State Government attributed the release to security operations, a relative of one of the victims said ransom was paid.

An Instagram user, who said his sister was among the abductees, said the family paid the ransom demanded for her release.

“We paid our ransom in full. They reduced the money to N5 million, and we paid in full,” the relative said.

Asked whether the victims were rescued by security operatives, the relative said: “No security rescued them.”

The relative, however, declined to provide further details, saying: “I don’t think I want all the information about the release out there.”

The police did not say whether ransom was paid.