Gunmen kidnap 9 Enugu-bound passengers, kill 2
Gunmen have kidnapped nine Enugu-bound passengers, killed two and robbed others along Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway on Saturday.
The victims, hail from Amangwo Olokoro in Umuahia, and were travelling to Enugu for a burial when they were attacked.
One of the victims who survived the attack their Sienna Bus was flagged down at gunpoint near the Arondizuogu junction on the expressway.
The source said that the gunmen diverted the vehicle to a hamlet off the Arondizuogu road in Imo, far into the bush.
“I have never had this kind of experience in my life before. We were travelling to Enugu for a burial and when we got close to Arondizuogu Junction, we saw a group of heavily armed men and they asked us to park.
“One of us in the vehicle asked them ‘why do you ask us to park and pointing your guns at us, do you know who I am?’.
“Then one of the hoodlums said, ‘now oga you will prove to us who you are’.nThey ordered us out of the vehicle and asked us to sit on the ground and pull off our shirts with which they blindfolded us.
“From there, they started beating the man that made the comment with machete,” he said.
According to him, the villagers were watching them as the gunmen maltreated and killed some of them.
“When we alighted from the vehicle, their leader asked about the man that made the comment and they pointed at him.
“They brought him out, and barely three steps away from us, they shot him dead.
“Another man with us, who saw what happened and attempted to escape was also shot dead.”
According to him, the gunmen who were no fewer than 50 in the hideout, with 20 of them heavily armed, refused to release the two corpses.
“The funniest part of it is that these men were speaking our own language.
“They told us that Umuahia people are ‘sabo to them’, that they asked us not to vote in the last election and we went out to vote.
“That they declared Mondays sit-at-home and we are not obeying them.
“That any Umuahia person they got around here will get it hot. Then they asked us to say our last prayers,” he added.
He said that as they were praying, they were being moved into one of the three new Hummer vehicles in the hideout and eventually taken back to their Sienna vehicle.
“At that point they asked whether we can find our way out and we said no and they told the driver to go straight.
“They said we should go and tell Umuahia people what we saw, that was how we found ourselves back to Umuahia,” he said.
He said that valuables collected from them, included cash and cell phones.
Meanwhile, those killed have been identified as Chukwuemeka Nwachukwu, a pastor, and a youth leader, Ifeanyi Onwunkwe.
The Police said there was no formal report of the incident.
