Armed bandits have intercepted an Abakaliki-bound luxury bus, robbed all passengers on board, and then set it ablaze with the passengers, who were deliberately locked inside, jumping through the windows to survive.
The travellers were reportedly on their way to the southeast for Easter celebrations when the incident happened on Friday night.
Spokesperson of the Ogun State Police Command, SP Omolola Odutola, who confirmed the incident, said the incident happened at Oke Ado junction at Ijebu Mushin, along the Ijebu Ode-Ore-Benin expressway.
According to her, the luxury Mercedes-Benz bus was burnt down by armed bandits.
“The vehicle was coming from Maza Maza before it encountered the hoodlums. No reference to guns was made. They carried cutlasses,” she said.
Some of the surivors narrated in viral videos that the bandits stripped all the 59 occupants of their belongings and locked the vehicle from outside before setting it ablaze.
However, the passengers smashed the glass windows and jumped out of the bus before it was completely consumed by fire.
The management of Ifesinachi Transport Nig. Ltd. also confirmed the incident, saying the attacked bus belonged to the company and that the vehicle took off from Maza Maza, Lagos, on Good Friday, en route to Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, saying that he was in shock over the incident.
In a distressing video shared on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) by Chude Nnamdi, survivors recounted the harrowing experience. “Ifesinachi Motors, we were travelling in the night to come back to the East for Easter celebration, and criminals attacked us in Ijebu Ode along the Ore/Benin expressway,” one passenger lamented.
The victims described how the bandits, armed and menacing, seized their belongings and subjected them to a terrifying ordeal. “They robbed us of everything we had; some they stripped half-naked.
“They locked us inside the 59-seat luxury bus and set it ablaze,” another survivor recounted.
“We thank God that we later escaped; nobody died, but everything we had was collected.”
“We thank God that we didn’t lose anyone, but we lost everything we were travelling with and some sustained injuries.”
“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.
“Though some of us sustained injuries, and we all lost our belongings because the robbers took everything with them, including the clothes some of us were wearing. We have been stranded here since 2 a.m. on Saturday morning: men, women, and children who are innocently travelling to the east to celebrate Easter.”
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