Armed men shot a woman dead and kidnapped 12 passengers on board an 18-seater commuter bus at Omoko village, along Abuja-Lokoja road.
Omoko village, is a 4-kilometer drive to Abaji town, which shares boundary with Kogi and FCT.
A survivor, Adesoji Rufus, who was shot in the stomach, said the incident happened on Sunday around 4pm while he was in transit from Lagos to Abuja.
He said he was driving in his Toyota Sienna some few kilometers to Abaji town when gunmen emerged from the bush and opened fire on his vehicle.
He was hit in the stomach and lost control. The gunmen took away two people from his car.
“In fact, the kidnappers blocked the two lanes for nearly 30 minutes without any security presence until when some men of the civil defence corps of the anti – pipeline vandals who are on patrol later arrived the scene to rescue some people that injured with machete to the hospital, ” he said.
A witness, who preferred anonymity, said the gunmen flagged down two 18-seater buses, in which they shot a woman death before they whisked away 12 passengers into the bush.
“They macheted some passengers on the two buses, after they killed one woman inside the bus, ” he said.
A civil defender said they were on patrol along the axis and suddenly rammed into some passengers on board two buses that were attacked with machetes by suspected kidnappers.
He said a woman passenger from one of the buses was shot dead by the gunmen, saying some passengers that sustained machete cuts were taken to Abaji general hospital for treatment.
“It was later some team of army on patrol later arrived the scene to conveyed the the woman’s corpse and some injured victims to the hospital in Abaji, ” he said.
Reacting, the Kogi state command Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO) Williams Aya, said it was a robbery incident where some hoodlums flagged down a bus and dispossessed passengers of their valuables.
“And while the police were approaching the scene, the hoodlums escaped into the bush, while a woman jumped down from the bus, in which another oncoming vehicle ran over her, ” he claimed.
The PPRO said the corpse of the woman has been deposited at a hospital morgue.
Credit: Daily Trust
