Hairstylist recounts escape after gunmen abducted 16 travellers on Benin-Ore road
Elizabeth Arowojolu says armed men stopped her bus and another vehicle on the Benin-Ore Expressway, taking about 16 people into a forest. She told Punch that she escaped with three men after the kidnappers threatened the captives and fired into the air during their flight.
Hairstylist Elizabeth Arowojolu says she escaped from kidnappers after gunmen stopped the bus in which she was travelling on the Benin-Ore Expressway. Arowojolu told Punch that she was travelling from Benin to Lagos on September 13 to visit a friend. She boarded a bus at Ogheghe on the Sapele Bypass Road in Benin City and said the attack occurred after Ore, at a location she later identified to farmers as being near an area called Step-down.
She said the incident happened at about 5pm, when the bus was trapped between a vehicle in front and a truck behind. According to her, the attackers included four men, three carrying guns and one armed with a cutlass and a large stick. Arowojolu said the gunmen beat the driver until he opened the bus door, then entered and ordered the passengers to remain quiet.
One fired towards the roof, she said. When one of the attackers saw her trying to hide a phone, he struck her on the forehead near her eye with what she described as a gun, leaving her unconscious while she remained aware of events around her. She said the passengers were ordered out of the bus and forced to form a line with their hands behind their heads.
The attackers also took occupants of a car stopped nearby, bringing the total number of captives to about 16. The captives were ordered to surrender their phones before being led into the bush. Arowojolu said the journey lasted more than two hours, with the kidnappers alternately ordering them to slow down and run.
Eventually, the group was told to sit in a circle while two of the kidnappers remained nearby. She said a man sitting beside her began signalling that they should prepare to flee. When two kidnappers moved away, three men stood up and ran, and Arowojolu followed them.
She was the only woman among those who escaped. According to her, the kidnappers fired into the air and threatened to kill the escapees if they did not stop. The account supplied to Punch ends while she and the others were still running in the darkness.
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