The Youth Wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, on Sunday, alleged systematic kidnap of luxury busloads of Igbo traders in the Northern part of the country.
The National Youth Leader of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Arthur Obiora, made the allegation while speaking with newsmen in Enugu, on the security challenges being faced by Nigerians, especially Igbo traders commuting from the North to the East.
Obiora noted that recently kidnap gangs on roads in Kaduna State had made the popular long luxury buses (over 60 passengers) their main target, adding that at times at a singular swoop, they abducted passengers, mainly traders, in three of these buses.
He noted that despite the security-men on the roads, the kidnap syndicates still operate freely and successfully; thus, moving hundreds of people at a time from these buses to the bush and God-knows-where.
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His words: “On Jan. 14, kidnappers in military camouflage uniforms within Kaduna-Kachia axis by NNPC Road forcefully stopped a fully loaded luxury bus belonging to Ezenwata Transport and they used the same bus to stop the ongoing luxury bus from GUO Transport and some other smaller vehicles.
“These passengers numbering over 120 people, who are mostly Igbo traders, were abducted and taken into the bush.
“The incident was reported to the police and the police know about it.
“The owner of the Ezenwata Transport had to retrieve the luxury bus, which was coming from Kano to Onitsha, involved and parked it at the nearest police station to the scene of the incident due to the fact that the personal belongings and goods of the traders were still in that bus.
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“But, till today, no one had heard any development concerning those incidents and a large number of the individuals abducted in that particular incident.
“Another similar incident happened on Monday, Jan. 27; within the same NNPC Road few kilometres away from the point of the former incident; kidnappers abducted passengers in three luxury buses and few small vehicles coming from Sokoto and heading to Onitsha.
“This time around it was GUO Transport, Ezenwata Transport and Young Shall Grow luxury buses that are under the Luxury Buses Owners Association.
“This second abduction involved over 200 people, mostly Igbo traders, and as speak to you, we have not heard anything about them also.
“It is clear we cannot continue to forge ahead as a nation when some criminals are already deploying tactics to eliminate Igbo traders or inflict fear on our people in order to bring to end the age-long beneficial trade between northern traders and their counterparts from the East.”
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The Ohanaeze Ndigbo youth boss urged the Federal and Kaduna State governments to rise up to the challenges of the worsening security challenge on major roads in Kaduna State.
According to him, there is a need for the Federal Government to restrategize on security within major roads and forest areas in Kaduna and other northern states.
On the missing hundreds of people so far, Obiora said that it was time that the security service chiefs were sacked, adding: “How can one explain that these abductors move hundreds of people at the same time without a security trace on them?
“Either they have run out of ideas or they are incompetent or they are already compromised, and I cannot see a country where kidnappers abduct hundreds of people and move around freely within the same country.
“We are seriously confused about all that is currently happening in the country security-wise and we appeal for answers and solutions.”
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