- The incident happened in Orokam along the Otukpo-Enugu Road in Ogbadigbo Local Government Area, LGA, of the state.
Gunmen wreaking havoc in Nigeria’s middle belt state of Benue have kidnapped 45 persons.
The victims were abducted while traveling in separate three fully loaded 15-seater commercial buses heading to Otukpo.
The incident happened in Orokam along the Otukpo-Enugu Road in Ogbadigbo Local Government Area, LGA, of the state.
A driver of one of the commercial transportation companies in Makurdi, who escaped the ambush with his passengers by a whisker, disclosed that the incident occurred at about 3:30pm on Thursday.
The heavily armed men were reported to have waylaid the ill-fated transporters when they appeared from the nearby forests in Orokam and forced their drivers at gunpoint to pull over.
According to the driver, the deplorable state of the road made it easy for the gunmen to carry out the attack.
According to him, “it was easy for the armed men to stop the vehicles because that portion of the road is very bad.
“The first person that came out of the bush was a heavily built young man who came out carrying an automatic rifle and a chain of bullets round his body.
“Their target was obviously commercial buses, maybe because of the number of passengers that could harvest ransom for them. In this particular instance, they took passengers in three-loaded buses that were heading toward Otukpo
“My saving grace was that a J-5 articulated vehicle was in my front. So when we were all stopped, before they got to my vehicle, I jumped out and ran into the bush, and all my passengers also followed. Luckily, none of my passengers were caught by the armed men.
“We ran into the bush, leaving our valuables, including phones, and they did not touch them. All they were looking for were the occupants of the bus.
“They took all their victims into the forest. After hiding in the bush for close to 30 minutes, when we realised it was safe to come out, we started running back to our bus to flee.
“At that point, we saw soldiers on motorbikes and a hilux van asking us where the armed went with the victims.
“This happened in-between a police and army checkpoint in Orokam after the Trailer Park at the bad portion of the road.
It was gathered that the armed men have already contacted the family members of the kidnapped passengers for the payment of ransom for their release.
A manager in one of the commercial transportation companies at the busy Wurumum Park who spoke in confidence with newsmen disclosed that the armed men initially asked for N15 million for each passenger, “but they negotiated and settled for N3million for each of the passengers.
“Some of the family members came here to find out if we have any details or are in touch with the kidnappers, but we told them that our company was not involved.
“They lamented that they had reached agreements with the kidnappers, and while trying to resolve how the N3 million they demanded would be sent to them, the phone line went off and they have not been able to reach the armed men anymore”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent, SP, Catherine Anene, has not issued a statement on the incident.
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