Gunmen Abduct Three Siblings Escorting Mother’s Corpse to Benue Burial

(Benue Map. Photo by Nation News)

Gunmen allegedly abducted three siblings on Saturday when they were transporting their mother’s remains from Abuja to Benue State for burial.

According to an online news source, the event happened in the Oglewu District between Omutele and Ankpechi at around four in the morning.

Sources claim that the gunmen stopped the victims’ car on the Ogobia–Otukpo Road in the state’s Ohimini Local Government Area.

The abduction is the second reported attack on mourners conveying a corpse for burial within one week, heightening concerns over worsening insecurity on roads linking Benue and neighbouring states.

A resident of Omutele community, who identified himself simply as Elijah, said residents were jolted awake by gunshots between 3am and 4am.

He recalled hearing sporadic gunshots at that time and initially believed herdsmen were attacking the community, but said it was only at daybreak that they learnt gunmen had kidn@pped some people escorting the corpse of their mother from Abuja to Iklenyi community in neighbouring Okpokwu Local Government Area for burial.

A video circulating on social media claimed that the victims’ vehicle developed a mechanical fault, leaving the family stranded on the highway before the att@ckers struck.

It was not immediately clear whether the corpse was also taken by the gunmen.

When contacted, the Chairman of Ohimini Local Government Area, Gabriel Adole, confirmed the incident but said he was on his way to the scene to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the att@ck.

Adole confirmed he was heading to the scene of the incident to ascertain what really happened.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the Benue State Police Command, Udeme Edet, said she had yet to receive a report on the incident.

She promised to contact the Divisional Police Officer in the area for details but had yet to respond as of the time of filing this report.

The latest abduction comes barely a week after gunmen amb ushed a funeral convoy transporting the remains of a late Deputy Corps Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Augustine Ikwue, along the Ochadamu-Ejule Road in Kogi State.

The att@ckers kidn@pped nine mourners and briefly seized the deceased’s corpse before abandoning it, allowing family members to recover it for burial.

Meanwhile, a former Labour Party presidential aspirant, Peter Agada, has urged President Bola Tinubu to take decisive action to halt the wave of k!llings across the country, following the recent k!lling of about 16 persons in Akpachi and Otukpo-Nobi communities in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State.

Speaking in Abuja on Saturday, Agada said the Federal Government must move beyond condolence visits and take concrete steps to dismantle criminal groups responsible for att@cks across the country.

He said the administration must stop being a government of empty ceremonial promises of security and instead rise to restore Nigeria from being what he described as a republic of bloodshed to one of law, order, peace, opportunity and prosperity.

He called on the government to deploy modern technology and intelligence-driven security strategies to combat t3rrorists, kidn@ppers, b@ndits and other violent criminal groups.