Panic as gunmen attack travellers on Ibadan-Ijebu road

Suspected terrorists attacked travellers along the Ibadan–Ijebu road in Oyo state last Saturday.

Ayanlade Olayinka, public relations officer of the Oyo police command, confirmed the incident to TheCable, stating that one person was killed.

He, however, added that no abduction took place.

“There was an attempted kidnapping but nobody was abducted. One life was unfortunately lost,” Olayinka said.

Social media footage on X, seemingly from the scene, shows a bus riddled with bullet holes and stained with blood.

The incident follows rising cases of abductions on Nigeria’s roads amid worsening insecurity across the country.

Last week, armed men kidnapped 17 passengers from a Benue Links commercial bus along the Makurdi–Otukpo road in Benue state.

However, according to Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency publication focused on the Lake Chad region, troops of Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS) later rescued 13 of the abducted passengers.

Three others had earlier escaped from captivity.

Zagazola quoted security sources as saying the rescue mission was achieved on Sunday during a sustained search-and-rescue operation in a forest in Okete ward, Ohimini LGA of the state.

Some students travelling for the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) were reportedly part of the abducted victims.

“Security sources further clarified that the perpetrators were local criminal elements in Benue and not Fulani bandits as initially speculated in some quarters,” the publication reads.