FOLLOWING the recent train attack by gunmen in Edo State, which has left scores of passengers dead, injured and kidnapped. News Point Nigeria gathered that the attack happened fast within an hour or two. Survivors of the attack have described the incident as gory and scary.
Speaking with one of the survivors, Mr John Ebuka, a 32-year-old banker, who was returning to Delta to resume work on Monday after spending his 3 weeks work leave and Christmas break with his mum said, the gunmen were all masked and dressed in black uniformed camouflage like clothes.
“Everything like it’s a movie, I was hearing gunshots from afar, then the sound of the shots kept drawing closer and suddenly, people started running from behind shouting that people were being gunned down. Then I saw a few masked men dressed in black camouglage shooting sporadically”.
Ebuka said he had to run into a toilet and hid under a drum until the Police arrived.
Speaking further, another survivor, Blessing Atei, whose sister, Mercy Atei was among the kidnapped passengers by the gunmen during the attack, while narrating the attack to our correspondent, said, she heard a loud explosion-like sound, like it’s a bomb and there was sudden stampede.
“I am a student, I came to spend the holidays with my family and was going back to school in Asaba. My sister escorted me to the train station, I left her to go buy a drink by the time I was on my way back to where I left my sister, I saw people shooting and everyone was running while I was trying to scamper for safety, I fell down and knocked my head on the pavement and fainted that is all I can remember ” Blessing said.
Blessing was informed of her sister’s kidnap when she got back home after she was resuscitated by security personnel and some passengers.
Another survivor from the attack, Madam Monica, a lecturer with one of Nigeria’s higher Institutions said, she came into Edo state on Thursday for work and personal purpose. Madam Monica was terribly shaken while speaking with our correspondent because according to her, she had merely survived the attack.
She was forcibly pushed under a seat by a passenger and was covered in the blood of a man who was shot in the head and was lying on her.
“I was to go back today, while I was waiting, I had to step aside in order to take calls then I started seeing masked men running towards passengers and shooting at the same time”.
News Point Nigeria reports that, barely a year after terrorists attacked a Kaduna-bound train from Abuja, in Katari of Kaduna State, the Edo State Police Command said scores of passengers waiting to board a train from the Igueben station in Igueben Local Government Area of Edo State to Warri in Delta State were kidnapped by suspected terrorists on Saturday evening.
Many of the travellers were also reportedly injured. The Edo Police Public Relations Officer, Chidi Nwabuzor, confirmed the incident in a statement.
The statement claimed that the abductors, armed with AK 47, invaded the train station and shot sporadically into the air before abducting scores of intending travellers into the bush.
The Command added that many of the passengers sustained bullet wounds, assuring that operatives were on the trail of the abductors with an aim to rescue those abducted.