Passengers travelling to Lagos from Port Harcourt were on Monday morning kidnapped by gunmen.
NEWS
How Lagos-Bound Passengers Were Kidnapped in Rivers State
Initial reports said that 5 of the passengers were kidnapped, with police debunking reports that all passengers in the bus were taken captive.
According to Punch, the incident happened at about 7.20am in Elibrada community along the East-West Road, in the Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The kidnappers were said to have used trucks to create a roadblock before shooting sporadically as the bus slowed down.
A source however said, no person was found dead at the scene of the crime.
Rivers police command has said that three out of the five passengers kidnapped have been released.
The Spokesman of the Police Command in the state, ASP Nnamdi Omoni, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt.
Omoni said five passengers were initially kidnapped from the vehicle.
He said that the police was “on top of the situation” to ensure that the remaining two passengers were released.
Efforts to speak with the Manager of the Transport Company in the state proved abortive as he was said to have traveled with other management staff to the scene of the incident.
However, an official of the transport company, who declined comment on the development, said the management of the firm had moved to the scene of the incident to confirm the story.
In a text message to Punch, Omoni said: “Five passengers were kidnapped and three of them have been rescued, remaining two. We fought hard to rescue them at the risk of a gun battle.”
As at Tuesday morning, no contact has been made to families of the victims.
