From Priscilla Ediare, Ado Ekiti
Four bus passengers were abducted by gunmen on Monday along Ayetoro-Otun Ekiti Road in Ekiti State, sources have reported.
The victims were reportedly taken into the bush by their armed abductors.
Daily Sun has learned that the incident involved two buses conveying passengers from Otun Ekiti, with the assailants succeeding in holding four people, with others escaping.
A source revealed to reporters on Monday that one of those who escaped told him that the gunmen took away four passengers from the two buses.
Another source, who got wind of the information when some hunters resident in the axis were being informed for proper action, said: ‘The hunters were called that some kidnappers were operating along Ayetoro-Otun Ekiti Road.
‘But before they got there, the gunmen had piloted two buses into the bush. At that point, we cannot say the number of people taken into the forest, but the buses were there.
‘I advised the hunters and the security agents who arrived at the scene later that the kidnappers would have gone towards the Otun end and that they would not have gone far that time.
‘Definitely, they were the ones who operated along Ayetoro-Ewu Road on Sunday evening. The Sunday operation was not successful and that was why they waited around to carry out this one,’ the source said.
The kidnappers, reportedly upon realising that they had missed their prime target on Sunday evening, started attacking commercial motorcyclists by shooting sporadically into the air to scare people.
‘An Okada rider was stopped at gunpoint and they took all his valuables, while another okada operator escaped into the bush. The kidnappers fled when they noticed the other okada rider had escaped,’ the source said.
Confirming the abduction, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, Sunday Abutu, said: ‘We heard the information and we have deployed our personnel there.
‘There was a kidnapping incident this morning. It began on Sunday evening when some suspected robbers attacked a man who the police thereafter rescued. But this morning, we learnt that the suspects were the ones who abducted some road users. The police are on their trail,’ he added.