- Ugwuogo Nike-Nsukka Expressway In Enugu Now A No-go Area
As Fear Grip Travellers, Enugu Residents
Police Commissioner Leads Rescue Operation
Citizens Afraid Of Christmas Return
By Valentine Nnamani (Bureau Chief South East, in Enugu)
Gun-wielding kidnappers masquerading as herdsmen have reportedly abducted a former Secretary to the Enugu State Government (SSG), Dr Dan Shere and a yet to be specified number of students of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) who were returning to their campus after eight months of strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Besides the students and the Enugu ex-SSG, several commuters were equally abducted following a gun attack on their vehicles by the kidnappers along the dreaded Ugwuogo Nike-Nsukka Expressway in Enugu East Local Government Area of the state which was constructed by the Sullivan Chime administration. This express road which is about the only motorable road from Enugu to Nsukka and to the entire Enugu North axis of the state, has many police and military checkpoints along that route.
According to accounts by some commuter victims who managed to escape from the abductors, the victims were commandeered into the nearby bush after their passenger vehicles and a few private cars were shot at severally by the gunmen and riddled their vehicles with bullets before diverting them to the bush.
The incident which occurred on Sunday this week, has heightened fear among commuters, commercial bus drivers and other road users on that expressway which leads to Opi Nsukka area.
NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Correspondent in Enugu gathered that the Kidnap incident and the general apprehension it had created, prompted the Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Ammani, to personally lead a rescue operation of the kidnap victims.
The state police boss was said to be with his men since Monday this week in the Ugwuogo Nike bush, where he and his police team were said to have cordoned off the entire bush areas and stretch of farmlands, in a desperate search and rescue of the victims, and also to apprehend their abductors.
The said the rescue effort appears to be yielding fruits, as some of the hostages of the mass kidnap are reportedly regaining their freedom from the kidnappers who were said to be contacting the families of the victims and demanding ransom payment as huge as N50 million and above, depending on the calibre or presumed financial status or background of their victims.
One of the victims, a medical doctor, was said to have regained his freedom after paying a huge ransom already agreed with the kidnappers. Other victims and their families are said to be still negotiating their freedom with the abductors who are yet to be nabbed by the Police team, as at press time.
However, the former Enugu state SSG, Dr Dan Shere, a medical doctor, who is one of the abductees on Thursday, was said to be travelling to Nsukka for a meeting when the gunmen attacked him along with other travelers on the notorious Enugu-Ugwuogo Nike-Nsukka road.
Shere served as SSG in the administration of former Enugu state governor and now Senator representing Enugu East, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani. He is yet to regain his freedom.
One of those who escaped and who shared a video of the attack, said the gunmen were about eight in number.
He thanked God for saving him and four others from the same community, he said: “They shot severally at our vehicle; one of us was hit by the bullets. But our driver managed to move on. We succeeded in taking the victim to the hospital.”
It was gathered that the kidnappers have increased their ransom demand on those they earlier picked on Sunday. The source added that: “They earlier demanded the sum of N2m on one of the victims but they have now increased it to N30m. They search the phones of the victims to know their status.”
Meanwhile, one of the kidnapped UNN student was quoted as saying that his friend’s roommate’s sibling and mother were kidnapped. His friend, he said, managed to escape from the kidnappers.
However, enquiries from the Enugu State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Daniel Ndukwe, on the update regarding the incident was not responded to. The Ugwuogo Nike-Nsukka expressway has continuously recorded incidences of kidnapping, armed robbery and other criminal vices in recent years, essentially due to the loneliness of that road, despite it's numerous security points.
For instance, in September 2022, kidnappers reportedly blocked the road around the Ekwegbe axis and abducted an unspecified number of road users with police claiming that two of the victims were later rescued".
The crime rate on the Ugwuogo Nike-Nsukka road is beginning to generate anxiety and fear in the minds of users of the highway, particularly Enugu Indigenes who are now afraid of coming home for the Christmas celebration. (additional reports from voiceofnaija). NNL.
