From Tony Osauzo, Benin
Gunmen yesterday abducted a man conveying a dead body from Lagos to Enugu for burial.
Following the attack at Ahor, near the Benin-Agbor road bypass, the younger brother of the deceased who was sitting in the ambulance was kidnapped while the ambulance conveying body was badly damaged.
Narrating how the incident happpened, the driver of the ambulance marked KRD 782 GO, Salami Orijiwa, said: “I carried a body in the ambulance; we were coming from Lagos to Enugu to bury him and the younger brother of the deceased was sitting with me in the front seat of the vehicle.
“When I first sighted kidnappers, I thought they were policemen because one of them was holding a gun on the right hand side of the road and then I saw another one on the left carrying cutlass. At that point, I thought they were thieves and then suddenly I saw another person in front who pointed a gun at us and shot. I quickly bent down inside the vehicle and that was how I lost control and veered into the bush and fell into a ditch. The bullet hit the vehicle behind me and the driver died on the spot”.
The body was said to have been removed from the ambulance and taken to a morgue. At press time yesterday, it was learnt that the family was still negotiating with the abductors who are demanding five million naira as ransom before they will release their victim.
Edo State Commissioner of Police, Philip Ogbadu, said he was in a meeting when contacted for comment. He directed inquiries to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Chidi Nwabuzor, who did not pick repeated calls to his mobile phone.
