The growing incidence of violent attacks and kidnap of villagers in a manner akin to guerilla warfare continues unabated in Apa, Agatu and parts of Otukpo and Ohimini Local Government Areas of Benue state as armed men suspected to be cattle herders have waged a relentless war, killing them in their numbers and abducting women, children and unsuspecting victims on a daily basis.
The armed criminals also lay siege on the highway to kidnap wayfarers for ransom in order to sustain their crime economy. A source disclosed to Nigerian Anchor this Wednesday, May 8th, that in furtherance of their criminal enterprise, armed men suspected to be Kidnappers, yesterday, at a lonely section between two villages named Omutele and Ankpechi in Ohimini Local Government Area of the state, intercepted a commercial transport mini-bus belonging to Benue Links Transport Service and conveying passengers from Abuja to Otukpo.
As at press time, the exact number of passengers affected cannot be verified, but first responders claim that victims were mostly women, while the minor were abandoned. Sources say that the abandoned children had been handed over to men of the Nigerian Police Force.
It was also disclosed that one of the young men from the two villages who were mobilized and currently on a hot chase for the adaptors was short while another retreated for his dear life. Meanwhile, a few others are reported to continue with the quest, combing bushes and forests in frantic search for the victims and their abductors.
A concerned villager who commented on the incident expressed the opinion that, “There are police posts in the area. The locales must be part of this, and that’s the great challenge.”
