Rivers State Police Command has confirmed the kidnap of passengers along Ndele-Elele Alimini axis of East West road.
The Command’s Spokesman, DSP Nnamdi Omoni told newsmen that the command was yet to confirm the number of victims involved in the incident.
Omoni said investigations were ongoing to unravel the circumstances behind the abduction of the passengers and to track down the perpetrators.
He said: “We are aware of the incident but what we can tell you now is that we were able to find the bus and we discovered that there were a lot of goods inside.
“So, it seems like majority of the passengers were coming back from the market; we can’t really put a number to the victims.
“Our men are currently combing the bush and we can assure you that the victims will be rescued,” he said.
Recalled that eleven passengers in an eighteen seater bus on Monday night were abducted by yet to be identified gunmen along Ndele-Elele Alimini axis of East-West road, Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The victims were said to have boarded the vehicle at Rumuokoro in Port Harcourt, Obio/Akpor LGA, and were travelling to Ndele, Elele and Ahoada before the incident happened.
Port Harcourt Spectator gathered that 18 passengers and the driver, making it 19 persons were in the bus journeying from Rumuokoro to Ahoada, but said 16 person were in the vehicle when the bandits intercepted by 8pm.
One of the victims, Mr. Bright Welekwe who successfully escaped from the kidnappers when they were forced into the bush noted that three of the passengers had alighted at Ndele junction before the incident.
Welekwe disclosed that when he got to the road, where the bus was abandoned, he met four of the passengers, who he said had also escaped.
According to him, “We were 19 that boarded a bus from Rumuokoro going to Ahoada but when we got to Ndele three people dropped, after they dropped it did not take long, within the bush between Ndele and Elele Alimini, hoodlums ambushed us and tried to take us inside the bush but me and four other persons escaped before police personnel arrived the scene.
“But I am sure they did not recover the rest people that night even with the help of soldiers, police officers carried five of us to a place where we saw another vehicle and joined to our destination.”
