17 Lagos-bound passengers abducted in a Mass transit Bus travelling from Delta State have been rescued by police operatives attached to Edo State Command.

The travellers were rescued during bush combing after the incident which occurred on Benin – Lagos Expressway between Ugbogwi and Ohosu Communities in Edo State.

The Command’s spokesman, SP. Chidi Nwabuzor said on Wednesday in a statement that three other travellers who were kidnapped along with 17 others by six armed herdsmen, are missing.

Nwabuzor revealed that 20 hostages were attacked by herdsmen who emerged from the bush with AK47 Riffles and Pump-Action guns, shooting sporadically at vehicles on Sunday evening.

He said during the pandemonium, twenty persons (male and female) were kidnapped by the hoodlums and thereafter taken into the bush.

Consequently, police operatives were mobilized on bush combing which eventually paid-off, according to the statement, assured that “a serious manhunt operation through bush combing strategies is currently ongoing for possible rescue of the victims unhurt and for the arrest of the Kidnappers” on the axis of evil.

In view of the above, the Police spokesman said the Commissioner of Police, Edo Command, CP Mohammed Dankwara, has “given a marching order to the Command’s Tactical Teams to go after the Kidnappers, arrest and rescue the victims unhurt”.

The statement partly read: “On Sunday, 20/11/2022, at about 1835hrs rescued seventeen (17) Kidnap victims (male and female) along Benin – Lagos Expressway between Ugbogwi and Ohosu Communities, in Edo State. “Meanwhile during the process of head count, it was revealed that three (3) other persons were missing.

“The kidnapped, but rescued victims were passengers of a mass transit Bus who were travelling from Delta State heading to Lagos state but were attacked and kidnapped by six (6) Herdsmen who emerged from the bush with AK47 Riffles and Pump-Action guns shooting sporadically at vehicles and finally kidnapped twenty (20) persons into the bush (male and female).

“Immediately, the operatives of Safer High Way Edo South alongside other team of Police officers covering the long stretch of the express way, moved to the direction of the gun shot, engaged the kidnappers and rescued seventeen (17) persons, while three (3) others were taken away into the bush”, the statement said.

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