Luxury Bus Owners Bemoan False Hijack Stories

Inter-state luxury bus owners and operators have urged security agencies to prosecute those behind frequent fake reports of ‘hijack of their vehicles and kidnap of passengers’.

The transporters were reacting to last week’s fake news that a ‘fully loaded’ Abuja-bound luxury bus belonging to GUO Transport Co. Ltd was ‘intercepted’ at Edo by ‘bandits’, with about 123 passengers kidnapped, hours after departing Owerri.

The Managing Director of GUO, Maduabuchukwu Okeke, described the story as mischievous. According to him, neither were any of his company’s buses hijacked, nor the passengers abducted.

He said: “The mischief-makers claimed that 123 passengers were abducted. But what kind of luxury bus can accommodate 123 passengers even with the so-called ‘attachment’ seats which are totally prohibited in GUO? Or are we talking about pieces of wood and not human beings anymore? You do not need to think deep to know the story is false.”

According to Okeke, if there was any such incident involving GUO buses, the management would have officially issued a statement in addition to police confirmation.

He, therefore, urged the Department of State Services (DSS), Police and other law enforcement agencies, to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

National President of the Association of Luxury Bus Owners of Nigeria (ALBON) Nonso Ubajaka also decried the frequent generation of falsehood about his members’ vehicles on the internet.

Ubajaka said he checked with the management of GUO and confirmed that none of their buses was attacked by bandits.

“The question then is ‘what is the motive behind the frequent fake news about luxury buses being “intercepted” and occupants abducted? All the transport owners are worried because there seems to be a secret plan to cause fear and disaffection which gives us cause for concern,” he added.

The ALBON President also enjoined security agencies to arrest the mischief-makers before they cause more damage.