Armed robbers attacked commuters along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway on Friday, killing two and injuring several others, witnesses said.
The raid resulted in multiple crashes involving at least six cars, including one belonging to a nongovernmental organization owned the wife of Vice President Namadi Sambo.
The black vehicle belonging to Amina Sambo’s I-Care Women and Children Initiative was completely burnt and could not be salvaged by sympathizers who stopped to help put off the fire, a witness said.
John Oguche, a driver of one of the vehicles attacked by the robbers, told journalists in Kaduna that the accident occurred around 4p.m. near Doka Hospital along the inter-city road.
“They blocked the road near Doka hospital and made unsuspecting vehicles to ram into one another,” he said.
The Kaduna State Coordinator of the NGO, Abdulrahman Mikailu, who spoke to our reporter from his hospital bed at St. Gerald hospital in Kaduna on Sunday, narrated how the robbers opened fire and dispossessed travellers of their belongings.
“Two bullets shot by the bandits missed me narrowly when I tried to come out of my vehicle to put off the fire, not knowing that a robbery operation was going on,” Mr. Mikailu said, adding that, “I had to duck and fall on the ground pretending to be dead.
“The robbers who were in military uniform thought I was dead, so they proceeded to my car and ordered my co-traveller to surrender all his money and laptops, handsets and other personal belonging of both of us.
“The fire had already raged as at the time of the attack, that is why the sympathizers could not put it off. I understand that they killed two passengers in a ‘Sharon’ commercial vehicle and robbed several vehicles.
“I am lucky to have survived with bruises and chest injury from the impact of the accident, but I lost my phones and other belongings.”
The Public Relations Officer of the Kaduna State Police Command, Aminu Lawal, said the multiple accidents were caused by panicked drivers who tried to flee from the scene.
Lawal, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, however, said there were no official report of casualties in the incident.