In a chilling daylight assault last Friday, the tranquil journey of thirty travelers along the Abuja-Nasarawa Highway turned into a nightmare. Masked assailants, wielding an arsenal of weapons, ambushed two buses near the sleepy town of Uke in Nasarawa State, transforming the roadway into a gauntlet of fear. By the time the dust settled, 27 passengers had vanished into the dense undergrowth.
Eyewitnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity, recounted the harrowing ordeal. “It was like a scene from a war movie,” one survivor trembled. “They emerged from the bushes, guns blazing, and herded us into the wilderness.” Among the captives was a bright-eyed student from the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, her dreams of a family reunion in Abuja shattered by the barrel of a gun.
In a twist of fate, one of the bus drivers managed to slip through the kidnappers’ net. Shaken but resolute, he snatched a victim’s phone and raced to the nearest police outpost in Uke, his actions a beacon of hope in the ensuing chaos.
Rahman Nansel, the voice of the Nasarawa Police, initially downplayed reports of thirty abductees. “An 18-seater bus was recovered,” he stated, his tone a mixture of caution and determination. “Three hostages are safe, but our search and rescue mission continues unabated.” However, as the scale of the tragedy unfolded, it became clear that twenty-seven souls remained in the clutches of their captors.
This brazen attack is not an isolated incident. Last October, the halls of academia were rocked when gunmen invaded a community in Keffi, abducting four university students. As Nasarawa grapples with this scourge, the echoes of captivity reverberate through its once-peaceful towns, challenging authorities to reclaim the safety of its citizens from the shadows that now haunt the highways.
