Ohanaeze decries kidnap of luxury buses loaded with Igbo traders


The youth wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Sunday deplored the systematic kidnap of luxury buses-load of Igbo traders in the northern part of the country.

The National Youth Leader of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Arthur Obiora, said this while speaking with newsmen in Enugu on the security challenge faced by Nigerians, especially Igbo traders, commuting from the north to the east.



Obiora noted that recently kidnap gangs on the roads in Kaduna state had made the popular long luxury buses (over 60 passengers) their main target, adding that at times in a singular swoop; they abduct passengers, who are mostly traders, in three of these buses.

He noted that despite the security-men on the roads, the kidnap syndicate still operate free and successfully; thus, moving hundreds of people at a time from these buses to the bush and god-knows-where.

“On January 14, kidnappers in military camouflage uniforms within Kaduna-Kachi axis by NNPC Road forcefully stopped a fully loaded luxury bus belonging to Ezenwata Transport and they used the same bus to stop ongoing luxury bus from GUO Transport and some other smaller vehicles.


“These passengers, numbering over 120 people, who are mostly Igbo traders, were abducted and taken into the bush.

“The incident was reported to the police and the police know about it.

“The owner of the Ezenwata Transport luxury had to retrieve the luxury bus, which was coming from Kano to Onitsha, involved and park it at the nearest police station to the scene of the incident due to the personal belongings and goods of the traders still in that bus.

“But, till today, no one had heard any development concerning that incident and large number of the individuals abducted in that particular incident.

“Another similar incident happened Monday, January 27; within same NNPC Road, few kilometers away from the point of the former incident; kidnappers abducted passengers in three luxury buses and few small vehicles coming from Sokoto and heading to Onitsha.


“This time around it was GUO Transport, Ezenwata Transport and Young Shall Grow Transport luxury buses that are under the Luxury Buses Owners Association.

“This second abduction involved over 200 people mostly Igbo traders and as we speak to you, we have not heard anything about them also.

“It is clear we cannot continue to forge ahead as a nation when some criminals are already deploying tactics to eliminate Igbo traders or inflict fear in our people in order to bring to an end the age-long beneficial trade between northern traders and their counterparts from the east,’’ he said.

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