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•11 passengers, driver abducted
From Tony John, Port Harcourt
Suspected kidnappers yesterday hijacked a commercial bus and abducted 11 passengers and driver in Rivers State. The bandits struck at the Ndele-Elele axis of the East-West Road, in Emohua Local Government Area of the state.
Daily Sun gathered that the victims boarded the bus at Rumuokoro, Obio/Akpor LGA at about 7pm in Port Harcourt and were traveling to Ndele, Elele and Ahoada, respectively.
Sources at Rumuokoro motor park said the incident occurred barely an hour after the vehicle took off. The sources further said that there were 18 passengers and the driver in the vehicle before the incident occurred around 8pm.
Further reports stated that some of the passengers, who boarded the bus at the take-off point, narrowly escaped. Mr. Bright Welekwe, one of the victims who escaped from the kidnapper that night, gave details in a telephone conversation with journalists.
Welekwe said that 18 people entered the bus at Rumuokoro, noting that three of the passengers whose destination was Ndele, had just alighted before the incident. The bus, after about two minutes’ drive from a police checkpoint on the road, was intercepted by an armed gang and all the remaining 17 persons in the vehicle were forced into the bush at gunpoint.
He disclosed that when the 17 victims were forced into the bush, after a long walk, he sneaked out from the group and found his way back to the road.
Welekwe added that when he got to the road, where the bus was abandoned, he meet four of the passengers, who had also escaped.
According to him, it was at that point that policemen came to rescue the five of them.
Welekwe said: “We were 19 that boarded a bus from Rumuokoro going to Ahoada. But when we got to Ndele, three persons alighted. After they alighted, it did not take long before hoodlums ambushed us along the bush between Ndele and Elele Alimini and tried to take us inside the bush. I escaped with four other passengers before police personnel arrived the scene.
“But, I am sure they did not recover the rest of the people that night. Even with the help of soldiers, police officers carried five of us to a place where we saw another vehicle and boarded to our destination.”
The Rivers State Police Command has confirmed the incident and intensified efforts to rescue the victims and track down the hoodlums.
