A commercial bus driver travelling from Abuja to Lagos abandoned his passengers midway at Efon Alaye in Ekiti State, when they offered to assist victims of an auto crash.
The unidentified driver who was said to be conveying 18 passengers reportedly zoomed of and hid at a spot near Ilesa in Osun State.
He was however accosted by police officers from Ijamo Police Station who handed him over to a police patrol team led by the Divisional Police Officer of Efon Alaye Division, Ekiti, where he abandoned his passengers.
“The driver thereafter was taken to Efon Alaye in the neighbouring Ekiti State Command”, Yemisi Opalola, a Superintendent of Police and spokesperson for the Osun State police command said in a statement on Wednesday.
The police statement was a rebuttal on a social media report in which it was alleged that a commercial bus driver was arrested in the state for after he sold 18 passengers to kidnappers.
While dismissing the report as false and mischievous, the police clarified that the driver only abandoned the passengers at Efon Alaye in Ekiti, after they stopped to help some accident victims on their way from Abuja to Lagos.
Part of the statement read: “The attention of Osun State Police Command has been drawn to news making rounds which reads thus: ‘People of Nigeria, if your relative is missing this morning, 19/07/2021, if he was travelling from Abuja to Lagos/lbadan (passing through Kabba/Ekiti), a driver has been arrested this evening at Ilesa/Ibadan Expressway with full loading of luggage but the whole of 18 passengers have been sold to kidnappers along Ita-Ore Road in Ekiti State’.
“The command hereby wishes to debunk the rumour and state empathically that there was no such case reported at Ijamo or any other police station in Osun. The news is false and mischievous.
“What happened is that a driver abandoned his good samaritan passengers, who offered to rescue some victims at a scene of accident at Efon Alaye on their way from Abuja.
“He left his passengers and went into hiding, with his vehicle at a point near Ilesa.
“The driver was, however, accosted by police officers from Ijamo Police Station and handed over to a police patrol team led by the Divisional Police Officer of Efon Alaye Division, Ekiti.
“The driver thereafter was taken to Efon Alaye in the neighbouring Ekiti State Command with the vehicle, being the jurisdiction in which the incident occurred.
“Osun State Police Command therefore urges the general public to disregard the news, and wishes to warn against the spread or peddling of fake and unconfirmed stories.
“Spreading false information will not only instill fear in the members of the public, but also create unnecessary panic, tension and commotion in the land”.
