It was a narrow escape for 59 passengers on board an Abakaliki-bound luxury bus, on Good Friday night, when armed robbers attacked them at Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State and set the vehicle ablaze.
The dare-devil robbers had
earlier stripped them of their belongings, and locked the vehicle from outside
before torching it.
But, what would have been the
most horrific robbery scene in recent time turned out not to be, as the
passengers were said to have smashed the glass windows, and jumped out of the
bus before it was completely consumed by the raging inferno.
The management of Ifesinachi
Transport Nig. Ltd, confirmed, yesterday, that the attached bus belonged to the
company, and that the vehicle took off from Maza Maza, Lagos, on Good Friday,
en route Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
Speaking to newsmen, yesterday,
the Managing Director/CEO of the company, Prince Emeka Mamah, said he was still
in shock over “this new dimension to armed robbery, which is now accompanied by
terrorism.”
Also, reacting to the incident,
the National President of the Association of Luxury Bus Owners of Nigeria
(ALBON), Mr. Nonso Ubajaka, bemoaned the rising cases of robberies and
kidnapping targeted at the members’ vehicles on various routes lately.
“But, robbing and burning a
luxury bus with 59 passengers on board is unprecedented. This is no longer
robbery. It is terrorism,” Ubajaka said yesterday.
A passenger, who narrated the
incident early, Saturday morning, in a video recording which showed parts of
the bus still burning, confirmed that no life was lost, though some of them
sustained injuries.
The passenger, who, like many
other victims, lost his shirt and other belongings to the robbers, narrated:
“This is the night bus (showing the charred remains of the 59-seater vehicle)
in which we were travelling home for Easter, on Friday.
“The armed robbers attacked us
at Ijebu Ode. They stripped us of our dresses and belongings and beat us
mercilessly. They forced us back into the bus and set it ablaze. But, we are
grateful to God that nobody was burnt to death, because we all managed to
escape from the burning vehicle alive.
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