Passengers stranded as robbers attack, kill luxury bus driver on Ore-Benin express

 

The Ore-Benin expressway assumed a war scene in the early hours of Wednesday when gunmen attacked some luxury buses heading to the East from Lagos.

By the time the chaotic fog cleared, the driver of one of the buses laid dead while passengers had scampered for safety, many running into the bush.

The incident reportedly happened in between two military checkpoints on the crime-prone highway at the Ondo State axis.

Daily Trust reports that two of the buses attacked belong to the operators, Young Shall Grow and Ifeanyichukwu motors.

Expectedly, the attack led to the blockage of the ever-busy expressway by luxury bus drivers.

An eyewitness said the gunmen, presumed to be armed robbers, used a Toyota Sienna bus which they snatched earlier, to block the luxury buses which left Jibowu, in Lagos, on Tuesday night.

According to the witness, the Sienna bus was conveying three passengers but the driver was pushed out of the vehicle before they used it to carry out the operation.

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“Immediately the luxury bus drivers sighted the roadblock, they sensed that armed robbers were ahead and they attempted to retreat but they were waylaid.

“It was in the process that one of the drivers was killed,” the witness narrated.

A passenger, who was in one of the buses caught up in the logjam that had ensued, said the driver was killed because he refused to open the passenger cabin for the robbers to enter the bus.

“The robbers were armed to the teeth. They wore army camouflage. They had already shot the driver of a Young Shall Grow bus behind us.

“The driver whose hand was pierced with bullets would be in his 50s. He must have sacrificed himself to save the passengers because he was the only person who could open the passenger cabin.

“The robbers then turned to our bus. We were all lying face down. They shot our driver also in the hand but they took to their heels when soldiers were approaching. After they shot our driver, we had to jump out through the window into the bush. We all ran into different directions in the bush and I even had cut in the process.”

Another witness said the soldiers claimed to have killed one of the robbers during a gun battle.

“We didn’t see any corpse but they said they carried the corpse away in one of their Hilux vehicles,” the passenger said.