Security agencies have delayed an immediate advance on the suspected hideout of kidnappers holding prospective National Youth Service Corps members in Imo State after intelligence indicated that the camp had been mined with improvised explosive devices.

The Imo State Commissioner of Police, Audu Bosso, disclosed on Saturday that operatives had located the suspected camp where the victims were being held but could not immediately move in because of the IED threat.

He said security personnel trailed the kidnappers into the bush and deployed drones on Friday, which pinpointed the suspected location.

“Any moment, we’ll still move into the bush. Yesterday, we were in the bush, we trailed them up to a particular location.

“But at that point in time, we couldn’t move in to where the coordinate showed us they are because we ran drones yesterday. And the drone actually showed us exactly their location.

“But our predicament is that with the intel we have, the camp is mined with IEDs,” Bosso said.

The police commissioner said security agencies were preparing to deploy bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers in the operation.

“We are moving in there with high-velocity vehicles, that is, bulldozers. We’re moving in with bulldozers and APCs to see how we’re going to rescue these victims unhurt,” he added.

The police spokesperson, Henry Okoye, also told journalists that security operatives were “closing in on the kidnappers,” adding that personnel deployed for the operation had been briefed on how to proceed.

The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, had earlier deployed the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Operations, Shehu Nadada, and two commissioners of police to Imo State to strengthen the rescue operation.

Nadada arrived in the state on Friday and reviewed the personnel, strategy and operational assets deployed for the search-and-rescue mission.

The graduates were travelling in two buses from Ibadan, Oyo State, to NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states when gunmen attacked the vehicles along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Umunoha, Imo State, on Thursday.

The attack has generated conflicting accounts over the number of passengers abducted and those subsequently rescued.