Travellers stranded as robbers kill driver, injure passengers on Benin-Ore expressway

Many pas sengers were stranded for several hours on Benin-Ore expressway after gunmen attacked some luxury buses heading to the Eastern part of the country from Lagos. The robbery attack led to the blockage of the road by the luxury bus drivers.

Two buses owned by Young Shall Grow Motors  and  Ifeanyichukwu Motors were attacked by the robbers. The incident happened few kilometers between two military checkpoints in Ondo State.

Our Correspondent gathered that  the Armed robbers, who had earlier snatched a Sienna car on the express way, blocked Luxury buses with the stolen car.

According to the eyewitness, the Sienna car was conveying three passengers but the driver was pushed out of the vehicle before they used it to carry out the operation.

Immediately the luxury bus drivers sighted the roadblock, they sensed that armed robbers were ahead and they attempted to retreat but they were waylaid.

It was in the process that one of the drivers was killed.

A passenger, who was in a bus with registration number SMK 732 XD, said the driver was killed because he refused to open the passenger cabin for the robbers to enter the bus.

“The robbers were armed to the teeth. They wore army camouflage. They had already shot the driver of a Young Shall Grow bus behind us.

“The driver whose hand was pierced with bullets would be in his 50s. He must have sacrificed himself to save the passengers because he was the only person who could open the passenger cabin.

“The robbers then turned to our bus. We were all lying face down. They shot our driver also in the hand but they took to their heels when soldiers were approaching. After they shot our driver, we had to jump out through the window into the bush. We all ran into different directions in the bush and I even had cut in the process.”

Another witness said the soldiers claimed to have killed one of the robbers during a gun battle.

“We didn’t see any corpse but they said they carried the corpse away in one of their Hilux vehicles,” the passenger said.

As of the time of filing this report, thousands of passengers at both ends of the expressway were stranded as the road is yet to be opened.