Dare-devil armed robbers have taken over the Port Harcourt-Owerri Expressway as they now rob innocent motorists without any challenge from security agencies from either Rivers or Imo states.
The road, which is being dualised from the Port Harcourt axis by the Rivers State government and from the Owerri axis by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, is the link between most states in the South-South and South-East geo-political zones of the country.
LEADERSHIP gathered that such robbery attacks, which have become a daily occurrence, always take place along the Umuapu- Nkarahia- Umuagwo-Mgbirichi axis of the road, which is in Ohaji/Egbema local government area of Imo State.
It was further gathered that the robbers, numbering about seven always operate on the morning of Sundays, especially between the hours of 8am and 11.30 pm.
A commercial bus driver, Nze Chukwueke, told LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt that passengers travelling from Port Harcourt to Owerri, the Imo State capital in his vehicle have been robbed within that axis three times in the last four weeks.
Chukwueke also narrated how he narrowly escaped from the robbers, who blocked the Nkarahia axis of the road in the morning of last Sunday, September 11, 2011, and dispossessed the passengers of their belongings.
Another victim of the last Sunday’s robbery attack on the road, Mr. Sampson Onugha, told LEADERSHIP that the commercial vehicle he was travelling in was forced to stop near an empty police checkpoint at Nkarahia junction, where he and other passengers were robbed of all their belongings.
He said, “On Sunday, we were robbed near that police checkpoint as we were going to Owerri. I was travelling to my village to see my family. They took N140, 000.00 I had on me. Other passengers were also robbed.
“Those that did not have much money on them were given the beating of their lives. I also heard that the robbers attacked two buses last Sunday and robbed the passengers.
“Each time they rob people, they just run into the bush towards Nkarahia village. I am suspecting that the robbers may be from that village or the neigbouring villages because they operate on that road every day, either in the morning or in the evening”.