Posted by By Dayo Johnson on
AKURE - AT least fifty passengers of a luxurious bus were stripped naked while two of them were shot dead by about fifteen armed robbers on the Owo-Ikare -Abuja Express road weekend before they were robbed of monies and valuables. he luxurious bus was on a night journey from Lagos to Abuja.
AKURE - AT least fifty passengers of a luxurious bus were stripped naked while two of them were shot dead by about fifteen armed robbers on the Owo-Ikare -Abuja Express road weekend before they were robbed of monies and valuables. he luxurious bus was on a night journey from Lagos to Abuja. The two passengers that were shot dead by the robber were hit by the gunshots that were fired at the moving bus in a bid to stop it at about 2am on the ill-fated day.The passengers were reportedly asked to undress and to drop all their belongings in the bus after which they were directed to file out and march into the bush. They later drove off in the luxurious bus after the passengers had filed out into the bush.
Reports had it that the gunshots by the robbers woke up the people of the town who within minutes rushed to the scene only to find men, women and children bare naked and were scrabbling for covering to hide their nakedness. They were rescued by some women who rushed back to their homes and provided them with cover clothes. The villagers reportedly housed them until the following day when the matter was reported to the police station in Oba Akoko.
Vanguard gathered reliably that the robbers had trailed the night bus from Lagos before they struck along the lonely Oba Bridge in Akoko South West Area of Ondo state. Dependable police source said that the robbers, who were mainly teenagers, brandished dangerous weapons and threatened to waste the lives of the passengers if they failed to cooperate.
Eye witness account said the robbers after firing at the bus on the bridge doubled crossed it and ordered the driver to disembark. It was learnt that the driver of the bus was ignorant of the robbers who were trailing them from Lagos as he took the J5 Peugeot as one of the buses that always follow their buses for cover because of the night journey.
Majority of the passengers were said to be business men and women who were traveling from Lagos to Abuja on the day of the incident.
Contacted the police image maker in the state Mr Adeniran Aremu confirmed the reports but pointed out that the robbers were from Lagos. Mr Aremu said that the robbers trailed the bus from Lagos only to rob the passengers at Oba town in the Ondo state. According to him, the police in the state and the owners of luxurious buses in the neighboring states are working on the possibility of preventing such an occurrence. The police spokesman added that they are still on the trail of the robbers assuring that they would be brought to book soon. He advised drivers of luxurious buses to always be vigilant when driving adding that the robbers that robbed the bus pretended to be following it as a cover because of the night only to be robbed the passengers later. Mr Aremu however claimed ignorant that the passengers were stripped naked by the robbers and that the bus hijacked.