Tragedy struck on Tuesday, October 22, 2019, when Mike Ochonma, the transport editor of BusinessDay, escaped a kidnap attempt while occupants of a Toyota Lexus SUV marked FH Court HC72 FJ were taken away into the bush when kidnappers operated along the Lokoja-Okene highway at about 11.32am.
Mike Ochonma had departed the Utako terminal of God Is Good Motors with other 14 passengers including the driver at 7.03am that morning, and had travelled nearly 20 kilometres without seeing any police or military checkpoints. Suddenly, the driver sighted four fully armed men in full dark blue khaki uniform with head gear just a few meters away.
In an effort to reverse and avoid the hoodlums, the bus in which he was travelling had a direct collision with the SUV that was also trying to escape, only for the two vehicles to crash into one another. Moments later, gun shots bullets started penetrating the God Is Good and the SUV with passengers inside.
Some of the passengers that escaped, including our reporter, sustained various degrees of injuries as a result, while occupants of the SUV were abducted and taken into the thick forest.
Online media reports said Wednesday that a judge of the Federal High Court, Akure, Justice Abdul Dogo, was abducted and whisked away by unknown gunmen while he was returning to Akure from Abuja on that Tuesday.
The online reports quoted sources as saying that the kidnappers had made contact and demanded N50 million to release their abductee. The report also said that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) had deployed the head of the IGP Intelligence Response Team, Abba Kyari, to Akure over the incident.
For many years, the Lokoja-Okene Bypass has witnessed cases of kidnappings and killings without visible efforts by the government to halt the attacks.
Last year, Bashir Zubayr, a medical consultant with the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital was abducted along the same federal highway.
He was abducted alongside two of his younger brothers, and a younger sister at Irepeni, 20km West of Lokoja. The medical doctor was on his way to Okene alongside his siblings for the 40th day Fidau of their late mother.
By our Reporter
