Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
Recently, there were reports in the social media that gunmen took over the highways, kidnapping drivers, passengers and conductors in some luxury buses travelling from Lagos and some South-East states to some northern states.
It was alleged that the buses, with full loads of passengers, were waylaid along the Kaduna-Zaria Highway. They were subsequently taken into the thick forest, dispossessed of their valuables and held captive for some days.
It was also alleged that the Hausa-speaking kidnappers later released those victims who could speak and understand Hausa, while others were held until substantial sums were paid to the bandits as ransom.
Daily Sun also gathered that some passengers escaped while others and their drivers were forced to pay ransom before they were released after several days in the forest.
Chairman of the Anambra State Task Force of the Association of Luxury Bus Owners of Nigeria (ALBON), Mr. Uchenna Maduakor, said the recent incident happened in January even as a similar incident had happened twice last year.
He said that Ezenwata Transport was involved in the recent incident, where ransom was paid before the company’s driver was released. He also stated that the conductor of his bus, Uchenna Motors, was still missing following his abduction in Lafia, Nasarawa State.
Maduakor said the kidnappers, most times, would mount roadblocks wearing army uniforms, pretending to be soldiers on duty. He said the truth would only be known when the driver stopped and the bandits in military uniforms would surround the bus and abduct the driver and passengers. Sometimes, only the driver and conductor would be kidnapped.
He said a recent incident happened along the Kaduna-Kano Road when the buses were hijacked by kidnappers who took all the passengers into the bush and collected their money and phones. He recalled that some people were released while some were held until huge sums were paid before they were released.
“The recent incident happened last month. We got the message that there were some buses that were hijacked and the drivers, conductors and some passengers were kidnapped and taken into the forest. This thing happened along the Kano-Kaduna-Zaria route. They were kidnapped for many days before the ransom was paid and they were released.
“The insecurity on our highways is alarming. It is not only on that route that they kidnap our drivers and conductors. They do the same thing on the Okene-Lafia Road. They kidnapped my conductor in Nasarawa since June last year and up till today I have not seen him or heard from him. I don’t know whether he is alive or dead.
“So, the recent one with a full load of luxury bus passengers shows that we are not safe on the road. And since that incident, our drivers have been afraid to go to the North due to fear of the unknown. We are begging that government should help us deploy more security men on the highways who would be patrolling day and night. The recent incident happened in broad daylight, not even at night.
“It is targeted at us to destabilise our business. Normal kidnappers have their targets and the persons they are after. But this one is a bus; you don’t even know who is inside it. So, it is targeted to cripple our business. It is affecting our business because passengers don’t come again as they used to due to fear. Traders now send goods to their destinations instead of travelling with the goods.
“Government should look more into the insecurity on the road. If every state should be allowed to have their own security outfit like the South-West is trying to do, it will help to checkmate the menace of kidnappers along the roads. It is really affecting everybody. Nobody is safe anymore in this country. The kidnappers come out to the road at any time to operate without any fear,” Maduakor lamented.
Some of the bus drivers and conductors, Livinus Achi, Kelvin Udoka, Kelechi Obiagwu and Johnson Ugwu, also raised the alarm on the insecurity plaguing the country. They said the incessant abduction of drivers and bus conductors had put fear in them, as some have set to leave the business.
They said the attacks on their buses by bandits and Fulani gunmen had become worrisome. In their words, their problem in the past had been armed robbers blocking the highways to rob passengers. They noted that when the bandits found out that the passengers don’t usually have cash on them, they devised another means of kidnapping the drivers and conductors.
“The kidnappers now devised another means of hijacking the buses. They would divert them into the bush and seize all the occupants. Some of us here have experienced it once or twice. Some of us were shot at by armed robbers. Now, they kidnap you and tell you to be calling your relations to pay ransom. Most times, they will beat and starve you in order to force you to tell your company or your people to bring money to release you.
“As it stands now, we are scared. Our passengers are also scared because nobody that has experienced this would like to hit the highway again. Some of us are still here because we don’t have any other source of income. If not for that, we would have quit the job. We want government to secure the roads for drivers, conductors and passengers,” they said.
The national youth Leader of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Arthur Obiora, had, at a recent press briefing in Enugu, expressed concerns over what he described as the systematic kidnapping of luxury buses conveying Igbo traders to the northern part of the country.
Obiora noted that, recently, kidnap gangs on roads in Kaduna State had made the popular long luxury buses with over 60 passengers their main target. He recalled that, recently, three luxury buses were hijacked with their passengers, who were mostly Igbo traders.
He added that, despite the security agents on the roads, the kidnap syndicate still operated freely and successfully, moving many people at a time from the buses to the bush.
“On January 14, kidnappers in military camouflage uniforms within the Kaduna-Kachia axis, by NNPC Road, forcefully stopped a fully loaded luxury bus belonging to Ezenwata Transport and they used the same bus to stop oncoming luxury buses from GUO Transport and some other smaller vehicles.
“These passengers, mostly Igbo traders, were abducted and taken into the bush. The owner of the Ezenwata Transport luxury had to retrieve the luxury bus, which was coming from Kano to Onitsha. The bus was parked at the nearest police station to the scene of the incident due to the personal belongings and goods of the traders still in that bus. But, till today, no one has heard any development concerning that incident.
“Another similar incident happened on Monday, January 27, within the same road, few kilometres away from the point of the former incident. Kidnappers abducted passengers in three luxury buses and few small vehicles coming from Sokoto and heading to Onitsha.
“It is clear that we cannot continue to forge ahead as a nation when some criminals are already deploying tactics to attack Igbo traders or inflict fear on our people in order to bring to an end the age-long beneficial trade between northern traders and their counterparts from the East,” he said.
He urged the Federal Governments and the Kaduna State government to rise up to the challenge of insecurity on major roads in Kaduna State and other parts of the country.
The president-general of Bridgehead Market Association, Chief Sunday Obinze, described the incident as callous, inhuman and criminal. He regretted that traders could no longer travel freely due to the fear of being kidnapped on the highway.
“As traders, we are mostly affected because my people are involved and it affects our businesses. It restrains traders from embarking on their lawful businesses. The Federal Government and the different states in the axis along that highway should do something to protect the lives of citizens by providing security along that route and on other roads.
“This has made our traders not to travel again for business due to fear of being killed while in the custody of their kidnappers. I don’t blame any trader that has decided not to travel for now because they should value their lives above business or money. I am of the opinion that traders should stop embarking on business trips along that highway until security is improved,” Obinze said.