Eight of a commercial bus driver’s passengers have been kidnapped and executed by gunmen in the Abonema/Degema/Emuoha/Kalabari region of the East-West Road in Rivers State.
Salvation Harry, the driver who was killed, was believed to have been on his way to Buguma when he was ambushed on one of the dangerous spots. Salvation Harry drove his passengers from the Mile One park in the Diobu neighborhood of Port Harcourt.
On Saturday night, the gunmen are said to have shot the driver dead in a commando-like manner, then quickly carried all of the passengers into a woodland, firing bullets into the air to fend off any threats while making an uncontested getaway.
Reports had it that while some of the abducted travelers were still being held captive, one of them had been released after paying roughly N150,000.
Another driver who stayed anonymous regretted that despite a protest urging the appropriate security agencies to step up, one of them had now been killed as a result of the frequent attacks.
“We had protested on our Kalabari-Emuoha-Buguma road because of the series of kidnap incidents and the shooting of our drivers and passengers.
“Even the Commissioner of Police sent a representative. After then, there has been an increase in kidnapping attempts and incidents.
“But yesterday, the worst of it happened. They (miscreants) killed one of our drivers by name Salvation Harry, who is from Buguma. As I am talking to you now, he is in the Buguma mortuary. And the occupants of the vehicle are in the bush with the kidnappers.
“We don’t really know what to do because we have lost confidence in the government. They cannot protect lives and property again.
“Maybe because we are not violent and cannot resort to carrying arms to protect ourselves on that road. We are tired,” he explained.
The eyewitness claimed that the difficulty in the region had not been resolved by the presence of security personnel on the road and accused the policeman of paying attention to individuals bringing illicitly refined petroleum products.
He said, “The police on their part are just concerned about collecting money they will collect from drivers and exploiting passengers.
“Their concern is the number of illegally refined products they will carry. Otherwise we have not seen a situation whereby we have nine to ten security checkpoints on that road, yet they killed our driver last night and took the occupants of the vehicle.
“We don’t know what will become the fate of the passengers in the bush. If they could kill the driver, then we don’t know the fate of the passengers.
“So, we are appealing to relevant authorities to come to our aid. We are law abiding citizens. This is where we feed our families and fend for ourselves.”
Grace Iringe-Koko, a spokeswoman for the state police command, verified the occurrence when reached.
Iringe-koko claimed that the police had opened an investigation into the incident to guarantee the recovery of the travelers and to find the kidnappers.
She said, “Yes we are aware of it and we have launched an investigation into the incident, and a manhunt to ensure the kidnappers are apprehended.”
