The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has not contacted the relatives of Esther Otegiri, the corps member abducted while travelling to her place of primary assignment last Thursday.

Esther was travelling back to Benue State from Edo on Thursday to continue her NYSC programme when gunmen took her and other travellers along the Enugu-Benue highway into captivity.

“I am being held hostage by unknown gunmen at Benue [sic]. Please help me. They are refusing to let NYSC corps members go. N50 million. I haven’t escaped, I’m still with them, send help, my location is on,” she wrote on her WhatsApp status a few days ago.

Soon, her family got to learn that Esther had been kidnapped. Her captors demanded N50 million and took a special interest in her and other corps members.

At about 5:07 am on Friday, Esther began posting pictures she had taken a day before, and she appeared to not be in her official kit or donning any items to give her away as a corps member.

Meanwhile, she claimed her abductors were clad in “army uniform” and they had collected her belongings.

SHE’S AN ORPHAN, WE ARE ALL SHE HAS — RELATIVES

In a telephone interview with FIJ, Frank Otegiri, Esther’s uncle, said he and his relatives had been speaking with the kidnappers since last week.

He said they were negotiating to pay a sum they could afford but no one from the NYSC leadership or the Benue camp had contacted them.

“Nobody has contacted us from NYSC to say they are looking for her or to support us,” Frank told FIJ. “It was only her fellow corps members who called us.

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“Esther is an orphan, and we are the ones taking care of her. We have been speaking with the kidnappers, and by God’s grace, she will be released.”

61 CORPS MEMBERS KIDNAPPED IN 9 YEARS

Esther’s story has been told before: a corps member abducted en route to their place of primary assignment.

It was told on August 21, 2023, when eight corps members travelling from Akwa Ibom State to Sokoto ended up in captivity in Zamfara State.

Again, it happened on November 5, 2023, when a prospective corps member was abducted in Kogi State while on his way to Abuja to participate in the orientation camp exercise.

Corps members get abducted and spend time in detention until friends and relatives gather money for their ransom payments.

Between 2014 and October 2023, no fewer than 61 corps members were kidnapped, a report found. This report revealed that students and corps members were regular targets for kidnappers in the country and not enough security was provided for participants in the scheme.

On Monday, FIJ called Eddy Megwa, NYSC public relations officer, and posed security questions to him.

ABDUCTIONS ARE NOT PECULIAR TO CORPS MEMBERS —NYSC

Megwa described the wave of abductions as a problem the entire country was battling. He said kidnappers were snatching people from roads regularly and the NYSC was not the only victim.

Megwa also said the NYSC leadership was working with security agencies to ensure the safety of corps members wherever they were posted.

FIJ asked him about a travel advisory that circulated in 2021. This advisory was for corps members to notify friends and family of their travel plans so they could help pay ransom if they got abducted.

“That handbook is not from NYSC,” Megwa told FIJ. “It trended in 2021; enemies of the scheme did it that year. NYSC could not have issued it. People don’t want the only national scheme galvanising the youth to survive.

“University students get kidnapped, primary and secondary school students get kidnapped, and many of them are not back, but no one is calling for their closure.

“We did a study and found that most abductions happen at night, so we advise corps members to travel during the day, and if they are out by night, they should find a police station or traditional ruler’s place to pass the night.”

Megwa had not learned of Esther’s abduction and did not comment on it during the interview.

The NYSC scheme has survived for 51 years, but in recent times, there have been several calls for its abandonment as parents and prospective corps members continue to express displeasure with having to pay the almost illegal ransom kidnappers demand.

RANSOM PAYMENTS ‘ALMOST’ ILLEGAL IN NIGERIA

In April 2022, the Senate passed a bill to impose a 15-year jail term on anyone who pays ransom to free kidnapping victims.

The bill was met with backlash as many Nigerians condemned the lawmakers for not improving the security structure in the country to prevent ransom payments and kidnappings in the first place.

The move by the Senate needed the approval of the House of Representatives and then President Muhammadu Buhari, but these conditions have not been met, and it remains a bill as kidnappers continue to enjoy windfalls.

Experts say continuous ransom payments fund kidnappings in the country and encourage crime. If Esther does not get help from the NYSC or security agencies, her family will be pushed to fund the same crime to secure her release.