The sad news broke out last Saturday, April 18, 2026, of the killing of a GUO Transport Co. driver along the Benin-Ore Road,alongside the kidnap of about 14 passengers aboard the 18 -seater bus.
In a video that equally went viral, the lifeless body of the shot driver was seen face down on his seat.
According to eye witnesses who arrived the crime scene a few minutes after, the abducted passengers were brutally marched into the bush to only God knows where .
Expectedly, the incident attracted the usual grief and cries over the mounting insecurity in the country ,thereby heightening many commuters’ fears over criminals’ renewed siege to the comparatively ‘safer’ Lagos- Benin highway.
However,while a mother of one the kidnap victims took to the social media,soliciting financial help for her loved captives,GUO Transport Co. added a worrisome twist ,via a press release it issued later.
In a statement signed by GUO’s Management, the firm lamented the killing of its driver,but said nothing about the reported passengers kidnap.
It added:”A Toyota Hiace bus DISPATCHED EMPTY( emphasis mine) from Lagos- Onitsha, was ambushed by armed robbers along the Okada-Benin Road”
In the same company’s terse statement,no mention was made about the kidnap incident,it rather spoke about the sense of loss the driver’s death had brought to the company,and efforts being made to succour his bereaved family.
Well, it is expected that the company will express such pain and grief over the cruel death of its driver,especially given the sanctity of the human life.
But,the transport company’s deafening silence over the kidnap incident has led many wondering if the lives of kidnapped passengers in its vehicle didn’t matter a hood to them.
And the whole incident has equally thrown up a lot of yet unanswered questions.
For instance,if the Toyota Hiace was dispatched empty from Lagos to Onitsha,how come the same vehicle had some passengers in it.?
Or did the now slain driver pick passengers along the road,and unknown to its company’s management.?
Still, or was another GUO Transport Co.vehicle involved in a similar attack and kidnap incident?
Most striking also,could it be that the motor company is deliberately shielding that aspect (kidnap)of the incident in order not to jeopardise its business interests and high patronage?
Again, how does one juxtapose the company’s silence on the abduction incident,and the SoS WhatsApp message of a mother coming up in the open to cry for help,is she fake and a scammer?
And in today’s news report,( Punch Newspapers,April 25 ) ,the Edo Police Command disclosed that it has rescued about seven kidnap victims,including three abducted in the GUO Transport Co.incident.
We ask these questions, because the public needs to know who is telling the whole truth between the GUO Transport on one hand,a victim’s mother and the police on the other hand.
And to all men of conscience who value human life,it is most unacceptable and callous for a company of GUO Transport status, to have downplayed a sad incident of such magnitude (kidnap), ostensibly to protect its business interest.
Every life matters,and no one knows the fate of the yet to rescued victims.
We need to be proved wrong over our fears if GUO Transport goes further to put the records straight.
Conclusively, our businesses must ,at all times,wear the human and compassionate face; it should not adorn a faceless image due to financial gains.
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*Nwagboniwe l. Emmanuel is media practitioner based in Lagos.
