Bandits, Wednesday, intercepted a hearse conveying corpse to Isuikwuato Community in Abia State.
The incident, according to a family source, took place around Umunneochi/ Ihube Okigwe axis of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.
A family member told Vanguard that the victims were coming from Abraka in Delta State when the incident occurred.
According to the source, armed bandits waylaid the vehicle conveying the corpse and dragged out the occupants, abandoning the coffin in the vehicle on the road.
The source who said the deceased was his uncle’s wife, said the abductors whisked the victims including the deceased woman’s daughter, another relation and the driver of the hearse into the bush.
He said that the woman’s daughter later escaped from the captors by providence while the driver and the other man are still being held captive.
The source which did not want to be disclosed said that they had informed the Divisional Police Officer in Isuikwuato for police intervention.
He said that the devastated family had recovered the abandoned corpse and deposited it at the mortuary.
” We are in disarray. People bringing the corpse of my uncle’s wife today were Kidnapped at the notorious Umunneochi-Ihube Okigwe axis.
” They took away the victims into the bush. We have gone to pick the corpse and we have reported to the police. We want Government to come to our rescue”.
Abuduction for ransom has become rampart on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway way since after the Kidnap of the Prelate of Methodist Church, Bishop Samuel Uche by suspected herdsmen.
When contacted, Police Public Relations Officer PPRO in charge of Abia State, Mr Geoffrey Ogbonna, promised to make inquiries about the incident.