Passengers numbering about 45 have been abducted by armed men in Orokam, along the Otukpo-Enugu Road in Ogbadigbo local government area of Benue State.
The gunmen ambushed three fully-loaded 15-seater commercial buses emerging from nearby forests in Orokam, compelling the drivers to halt at gunpoint.
An eyewitness, a driver from a transport company in Makurdi, recounted the incident that transpired around 3:30 pm on Thursday, January 11, 2024. He revealed that armed men easily stopped the vehicles due to the poor condition of that road segment.
The witness detailed, “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.
He continued, “I saw three of them came 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 be harvested for ransom. In this particular instance, they took passengers in three-loaded buses that were heading toward Otukpo.
“My saving grace was that a J-5 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 checkpoints 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.”
Reports suggest that negotiations for ransom have commenced between the armed kidnappers and the families of the abducted passengers. According to an anonymous manager from a commercial transport company, the initial demand was N15 million for each passenger, but they eventually settled for N3 million per passenger after negotiations.