Gunmen on Thursday morning hijacked a private school bus at Oba Ile Estate in the Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, abducting a member-staff of the school.

It was gathered that the incident occurred around 6:45am while the driver and the abducted staff of the school were moving round to pick the pupils. The identity of the abducted staff had not been revealed as of the time of filing this report.

A source in the school explained that the bandits numbering about eight on motorcycles, attacked the bus, forcing the driver to stop.

According to him, they dragged the driver out and hijacked the bus and drove it to an unknown destination with the staff on the bus.

He said, “The driver and the attendant were about to pick the first set of pupils when the incident happened. The gunmen rounded up the vehicle with dangerous weapons. The driver was dragged down from the bus while one of them took over the driver’s seat and drove off with the attendant in the bus.

“The whereabouts of the attendant is still unknown but we have reported the incident at the Oba Ile Police station. This is the first time we are experiencing this kind of situation here. It is quite unfortunate.”

The driver and the attendant were reportedly moving round to pick the Pupils of Chimola School located in the estate to their school when the gunmen struck. The bus marked Lagos LSD 853 FJ with Chimola Schools inscribed on it was driven away by the abductors while others escaped on the motorcycles.

“This is the first time we are experiencing this kind of situation here. It is quite unfortunate.”

Contacted, the state police command image maker, Tee Leo lkoro said the matter was yet to be reported at the state command headquarters.

Ikoro however promised to confirm from the Divisional Police Officer in the area.