Reports reaching InsideBenue reveals that some gunmen have on Sunday attacked a Benue Link passenger bus, abducting not fewer than 10 passengers.

The incident occured around Olanyega community along Otukpo-Otukpa road in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State.

According to the Secretary General of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (Benue Links chapter), Comrade Gabriel Tachia, the fully loaded bus was on its way to Makurdi from Onitsha before it was hijacked on the Benue road.

“Four passengers were released as at yesterday night (Sunday) after the army gave the abductors a hot chase. It was a fully loaded bus (with 15 occupants). The bus was returning from Onitsha to Makurdi,” Tachia told newsmen.

Mr Omale Omale, the Commissioner for Power, Energy and Transport who confirmed the development to newsmen in Makurdi said information are sketchy.

The Makurdi Zonal Centre of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), said among the passengers abducted was a staff of the organisation.

According to the report, the kidnappers demanded N60 million, but reduced the demand to N16 million as ransom before their victims gain freedom.

The operation which lasted over 30 minutes, according to locals, occurred at 2:30pm on Sunday, leaving motorists plying that section of the highway helpless.

A local chief in the area, who escaped being caught up in the attack, narrated that the spot – Olanyega/Okpudu – where the incident happened on the Otukpo-Ugbokolo-Enugu Expressway had over time become unsafe for commuters.

Recall that similar incident involving two buses of the transport company a fortnight ago around Ajaokuta in Kogi State. 28 people were kidnapped.

Tachia however added that eight of the 10 Lagos-bound passengers abducted in Kogi axis had been released remaining two victims.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Benue Command, SP Catherine Anene, confirmed the incident.

Some angry youths have come out en mass on Wednesday, taking over the Gboko-Aliade highway to protest the poor state of the road and collapse of Nomnor bridge near Gboko Rice Mill.

The youths, numbering hundreds, barricaded the federal road, preventing any form of vehiclular movement.

Due to the situation, motorists and commuters were left stranded around Nomnor River Rice Mill, Gboko Local Government Area, LGA, of the state. They were forced to seek alternative routes to their destinations.

According to the youths, they had earlier protested and called necessary attentions to the situation but nothing was done about it.

According to them, heavy duty trucks had fallen into the eroded portion of the road. And most cases, , motorists use people’s farm lands as alternatives to avoid the bad portion of the federal road.

“And finally today after the heavy rain of last night the bridge linking Rice Mill and Fidei Polytechnic settlements was washed away by flood, thereby worsening our situation.

“So we cannot continue to watch because the destroyed bridge will also affect our people who use it daily. We are peaceful in our demands but we are so angry because before this happened we had protested over the state of the road but nobody listened to us until the situation got to this point.

“We have advised all motorists to seek alternative routes for now because the bridge is in bad state and the road itself is in a state of disrepair,” one of the youths told reporters.

A 14-year-old girl, Desola Adeoye, has committed suicide in the Shogunle area of Lagos over fear of being tortured by her father, Sunday Adeoye.

It was gathered that Desola drank insecticide to escape torture after she was threatened by her stepmother.It was learnt that the incident occurred on Tuesday, August 22, 2023, after the girl, who was said to have suffered domestic violence in the hands of her father, returned from her summer school lesson.The girl, it was gathered, sneaked out of the house and drank the insecticide kept in the apartment to escape torture from her father who was said to be out when Desola was threatened by her stepmother.

She was reportedly rushed to a nearby private hospital where she was confirmed dead.It was learnt that her father later retrieved her lifeless body from the hospital and took it back home with the intention of burying her secretly.His plan was, however, thwarted by police operatives from Shogunle Divisional Police Station, who were alerted by neighbours.

“The late Desola and her two younger sisters were regularly subjected to domestic violence by their biological father and stepmother every time they made mistake.“Shogunle Community Development Association in Oshodi, CDA, had, on numerous occasions, cautioned their father and stepmother to stop the physical abuse unleashed on their children especially late Desola Adeoye,” a neighbour who drew the attention of a non-governmental organisation, Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network (ACVPN) to the incident told Vanguard.

Confirming the incident, the Chief Operating Officer of ACVPN, Ebenezer Omejalile, called on the police, Lagos State Government, and Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) to rescue the remaining two children still under the care of the couple and also get justice for Desola.

SOURCE: VANGUARD