Gunmen kill driver, leave passengers stranded on Benin-Ore expressway

By ABDULLATEEF ALIYU

There was pandemonium along the Benin-Ore expressway in the early hours of Wednesday when gunmen attacked some luxury buses heading to the Eastern part of the country from Lagos.

The driver of one of the buses was shot dead in the incident which reportedly happened in between two military checkpoints in Ondo State.

Daily Trust gathered that two of the buses attacked belong to the Young Shall Grow while another is operated by Ifeanyichukwu Motors.

The robbery attack led to the blockage of the ever-busy expressway by the luxury bus operators.

An eyewitness, who spoke with Daily Trust, said the Armed robbers used a Sienna car which they snatched earlier, to block the Luxury buses which left Jibowu in Lagos on Tuesday night.

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

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.

A passenger, who was in a bus with registration number SMK 732 XD, 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.

As of the time of filing this report, thousands of passengers at both ends of the expressway were stranded as the road is yet to be opened. (Daily Trust)