Gunmen have attacked a bus, popularly called Uduaghan bus with registration number DT 476 B28, leaving one of its victims dead at the Bomadi-Ohoro link road.
The bus which belongs to the Delta State City Transport Scheme was traveling to Ughelli at about 11:30am from Bomadi on Friday February 1 when it ran into the gunmen between Odeh bridge and Agadama.
An eye witness said the bullet fired by the attackers hit one Mr. Sylvester Akpesiri Akirigbe in the head. Passengers ran into nearby bushes to save their lives as money and other valuables belonging to the passengers on board the vehicle were carted away.
The victim, Mr. Sylvester Akpesiri Akirigbe, a native of Gbaregolor in Ughelli South local government area of Delta State, according to an eye witness was allegedly shot in the head and died on his way to the hospital, and the driver, Mr. Ezekiel Ikiki who has worked in the company for about a year suffered wounds.
The thirty one year old Mr. Akirigbe, the only graduate in the family, a graduate of Sociology from the prestigious Delta State University, Abraka two years ago met his untimely death on his way to Ughelli leaving his aged mother in her seventies, Mrs. Golden Akirigbe in grief.
A source at the Joint Task Force, JTF, whose quick response to a tip-off dispersed the robbers from the road on arrival, disclosed that the hoodlums were professionals in their operation, and they where tele-guided. “They used light arms from our finding on the scene of crime. They operated just on the spot where there is network signal in a forest area that has no network coverage in order to monitor movement of security agencies, while they operated. They raised blockades to force their victims to stop”, the source disclosed.
The JTF officials who complained of lack of good operational vehicles and logistics to sustain 24 hour surveillance on the road were at the scene of incident to open the road for road users.
Our Bomadi Correspondent reports that there is conflicting information from sources who fingered Fulani herdsmen to have carried out the attack, while others believe hoodlums from neighboring villages were responsible.
According to supervisor of the Uduaghan Park at Bomadi, Mr. James Biakinogho, the operations at the park was immediately closed down and resumed shortly after the road was opened by men of the JTF.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Bomadi local government transition committee, Mr. Collins Olorogun has warned armed robbers operating in the area that hard times await criminals who do not embrace lawful activities, adding that “they will be smocked out of their hide outs”.
Mr. Olorogun while reacting to the robbery incident, explained that his government is committed to combating crimes and criminality as a core mandate of his administration, and ensuring that citizens go about their lawful duties without fear of molestation and harassment.
The council boss, who responded immediately to the distress call from commuters, sympathized with the families of the deceased and assured the people of Bomadi local government of adequate security of lives and property, just as he advised residents to be vigilant and always feed the relevant security agencies with useful information.