Approximately 45 passengers on three fully occupied 15-seater commercial buses were reportedly kidnapped by armed individuals in Orokam, along the Otukpo-Enugu Road in the Ogbadigbo Local Government Area of Benue state.
An eyewitness and a driver from one of the transportation companies in Makurdi, who narrowly escaped the ambush, revealed that the incident occurred around 3:30 pm on Thursday.
The heavily armed assailants emerged from nearby forests in Orokam, compelling the drivers at gunpoint to stop the ill-fated commercial vehicles.
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.
“I saw three of them come out of the bush with guns, this was at about 3:30pm on Thursday in broad daylight.
“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.
“Since I started driving, I used to hear stories of people being kidnapped on the road, I saw it happening live and I almost became a victim. I cannot thank God enough.”
Meanwhile, it was gathered that the armed men have already opened negotiations with family members of the kidnapped passengers for the payment of ransom for their release.
