Benue: Gunmen intercept commercial bus, kill two, kidnap four

Benue map

Gunmen Sunday night intercepted a commercial vehicle along Adoka Otukpo road, in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State, killing two people including the driver, and kidnapped four passengers.

This is coming barely two weeks after 14 passengers were abducted when their vehicles were intercepted near Naka, the headquarters of Gwer West LGA of the state.

A source told our correspondent that the bus was coming from Abuja en route to Otukpo when the gunmen intercepted the commercial vehicle between 7 and 8 pm.

“They shot the driver and one other person. This made the vehicle to lose control and crashed into a bush. The other passengers were later kidnapped,” the source who did not want to be mentioned told our correspondent in a telephone chat on Monday.

Confirming the incident, Chairman of Otukpo Local Government, Maxwell Ogiri said the incident happened between 7 and 8pm on Sunday along Adoka -Otukpo road.

He said, “The vehicle was coming from Abuja to Otukpo and the majority of the passengers alighted in Adoka.

“Only six people remained in the vehicle and were intercepted along Adoka Otukpo road, two people were killed and four passengers were abducted.”

The council chairman said that the incident had been reported to the police in Otukpo.

But efforts to get the response of Benue State command were not successful as calls made to the spokesperson, Catherine Anene were not picked up.

She did not also respond to text messages sent to her cell phone as of the time of filing this report. Punch