Passengers In Abuja-Bound Bus Kidnapped In Enugu-Kogi Border

A bus fully loaded with passengers belonging to a popular transport company was intercepted Wedneday evening between Kogi and Enugu borders and the passengers kidnapped.

The incident reportedly happened around Ette, a town hosting some natives of Enugu-Ezike in Igboeze North LGA, and Kogi state.

“The driver loaded from Ebonyi state en-route to Abuja when it happened,” a brother of one of the kidnapped persons said. “She has been calling me since yesterday. She said they demanded N5m ransom. I don’t know what to do. She asked me to be contacting our relatives to save her.”

Investigations by our correspondent showes that the captives had been asked to be contacting their relatives to save them.

About three of the passengers were said to have escaped during the attack, although their whereabouts remain unknown.

A wife of one of the victims, on condition of anonymity, said, “I gathered that they left Ebonyi a little late. They got to Nsukka around 3pm. I saw that bus. It belongs to Bright Mass Transit. They might have been kidnapped around 6pm. My husband called me in the morning today, and called again this evening. He was speaking English. I believe his calls are being monitored. I beg them to release him. I am a nursing mother.”

THE WHISTLER called both Enugu and Kogi state police commands’ hotlines, and the receivers, who identified that the numbers were police hotlines, seem unaware of the alleged kidnap incident.

Kogi, Enugu border has been notorious following activities of kidnappers. Despite the presence of security checkpoints along the axis, crimes have not been unabated, a source said.