Police in Delta State have detained a bus driver (name withheld) for alleging kidnap of 18 passengers among a bus load he was conveying from Warri to Bayelsa state in yet unclear circumstances.
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Delta Command, SP Edafe Bright, stated yesterday that the authority had to detain the driver in ongoing investigation when his account of the said incident since last week Tuesday gave a vague picture that created suspicion on what may have transpired.
According to earliest reports, including that by the Supervisor of the transport line the driver works for, no fewer than eighteen passengers on the journey from Warri to Bayelsa were abducted at about 5pm by suspected Fulani herdsmen between Ogor and Evwreni on the Ughelli North Local Government Area stretch of the East-West Road.
A police source disclosed that, “The Supervisor of the transport line (name withheld) reported that the one of their buses loaded with passengers from Warri to Bayelsa was blocked along the Ughelli-Patani Road, around Evwreni axis and they were all kidnapped and taken to unknown destination.
“Though contact has been made but it could not be ascertained if ransom was being demanded to secure their release.”
In official update on the development, PPRO Bright, stated, “The issue is that the driver did not know where exactly that thing happened because he claimed that there was a kidnap.
“What we are suspecting is that if at all there was a kidnap, that thing happened in Bayelsa and not in Delta because on that route the Area Commander and DPO went round and there was nobody that heard or experienced it.
“But because people came to report to us, we now held the driver who claimed some people were kidnapped and he carried the others to their destination without reporting to the police.
“It became suspicious. How would Kidnappers kidnap some passengers and leave the others. Who were the others he dropped at their destination?
“As I am speaking with you, the driver is being detained because his story is not clear why and how he got the record, that kidnapping did not happen as we did not have any evidence that it took place in Delta if at all that it happened.”
