Gunmen suspected to be bandits have abducted eight members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, along a highway in Zamfara State.

The victims were kidnapped on Saturday, while traveling inside AKTC bus from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, to Sokoto State en route Zamfara State, to take part in the mandatory national service when their vehicle was intercepted along a highway in Zamfara.

A source in the transport company disclosed this yesterday.

The source, who did not want his name mentioned in the report because he was not authorised to speak on the incident, said the corps members were 11 in number but that three escaped from the gunmen.

Apart from the eight corps members, the driver of the bus was also abducted, he said.

"The corps members were offloaded (from the bus) and taken into the bush. The police have recovered the bus.

"They left here (Uyo) on Friday, and slept over in Abuja. It was when they were proceeding to Sokoto that they were kidnapped," he said.

He said the incident had been reported to government authorities and security agencies.

A Facebook user, Malachy Blessed, at 9:14a.m., on Sunday disclosed in a Facebook post the identity of one of the abducted corps members as Emmanuel Esudue, a graduate of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, Akwa Ibom State University.

He said the corps member's phone number has been unreachable since Thursday.

Another victim has been identified as Betty Udofia.

A Facebook user, Edidiong Richard, said the kidnappers have contacted Ms Udofia's parents, and that they were demanding N4 million ransom.

When contacted, the police spokesperson in Zamfara, Yazid Abubakar, yesterday, said he was going to verify the incident and get back to our reporter.

Similarly, the NYSC spokesperson, Eddy Megwa, did not respond to calls made to his phone line as of press time.