Several passengers were reportedly abducted after gunmen attacked two 18-seater buses on the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway in the early hours of Thursday.
A viral video shared on X showed that the passengers were travelling from Lagos to Anambra when the attackers reportedly intercepted the buses and robbed the occupants at about 5:30am.
An eyewitness in the video said the gunmen robbed the passengers before taking them into a nearby bush.
“Good morning, my fellow Nigerians. I am reporting from the Owerri-Onitsha Road. This happened this morning. Fulani herdsmen and bandits robbed two vehicles coming from Lagos. They took all the passengers into the bush,” the eyewitness said.
“The police came this morning, and the army has already entered the bush to see if they can rescue the victims. They kidnapped all the passengers in the two 18-seater buses.”
The eyewitness appealed to people to contact their relatives and establish whether they were safe.
“I don’t know what is going on in this South-East. They robbed all the passengers and thereafter took them into the bush. I feel bad. This thing can happen to anyone,” the eyewitness added.
The video showed several youths gathered around the scene, with the two buses abandoned on the road. A number of vehicles and trucks were also seen queued behind the barricade.
One of the buses had “Uko Akwa Ibom Motors Nig. Ltd” written on it, alongside the number Uko/133.
In a separate viral video shared by Agidigbo FM Ibadan, a woman wearing a hijab appealed for assistance, saying her twin daughter, a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, was among those reportedly abducted.
She said her daughter had left Samonda in Ibadan for Anambra at about 9am on Wednesday alongside other corps members.
According to the woman, her daughter sent a message to their family group shortly after 6am on Thursday which read “kidnapper”, followed by a missed call, after which her phone became unreachable.
She said the corps members had stopped overnight at a location in Imo before resuming their journey at about 4:30am.
The woman added that people at the scene later sent the family a video showing the vehicle and claimed that all the passengers, including the drivers, had been taken into the bush.
She said the group had travelled in three vehicles, but only one managed to escape while passengers in the other two were abducted.
“Since past 6am, I have not been able to hear from my child, and we couldn’t get her exact location anymore. Please, federal government, help us. I only have the two of them,” she said.
She identified the missing daughter as Kehinde, adding that her twin sister, Taiwo, had already arrived in Enugu for her NYSC camp.
At the time of filing the report, the Imo State Police Command had not released an official statement on the incident.
Henry Okoye, the command’s spokesperson, had also not responded to calls or text messages seeking comment as of the time of publication.