Near Ochonyi village, on the Abuja-Lokoja route, gunmen thought to be kidnappers fired on two commercial buses and kidnapped a large number of the passengers.
Shedrack Jonathan, a passenger on one of the buses who managed to flee while being led into the bush, claimed to have boarded the vehicle at Jabi in Abuja on its way to Enugu, where they encountered the gunmen.
He claimed that the event occurred last Thursday at 7:33 p.m. after Omoko village as they were descending a sloppy section of the road. He added that they had begun to hear gunshots when the bus abruptly veered off the road and into the bush.
He went on to say that a little while later, armed individuals ordered them to exit the bus and escorted them into the surrounding jungle.
After approximately a kilometer away from the highway, he claimed to have been able to flee and had exited at the nearby Aseni village.
He stated “Some vigilantes saw me in Aseni village, and I told them what had happened, and they mobilized to the scene.”
Passengers from the two buses were kidnapped, according to a local vigilante who asked to remain anonymous.
He claimed that the shooters entered the jungle and shot the two buses’ tires, causing the drivers to come to a stop.
“The gunmen had fled with the victims, leaving the buses by the road, before we mobilized to the scene,” he said.