/ 30 June 2000

ARMED MEN KILL BUS PASSENGERS

ARMED robbers killed 15 people in a new attack on a night bus in southeast Nigeria, in the latest in a string of incidents that have alarmed residents of the region. The attack took place near Onitsha in southeast Nigeria’s Anambra State, the Nigerian press reported. An armed gang had chased a bus along the Onitsha-Asaba Expressway and opened fire, killing 15 people. The corpses of the dead were laid out on the road on Wednesday morning. The newspaper The Vanguard last Friday said 30 people had been killed in separate attacks on overnight buses last week. Anambra State Governor Chiwoke Mbadinuju told reporters on Tuesday that crime victims should take the law into their own hands and shoot suspected armed robbers. “Why should we have justice when it comes to dealing with armed robbers?” he asked.