GUO Transport lied about empty bus while kidnappers held Nigerians for ransom

A Nigerian transport giant is facing a storm of public outrage after claiming that a bus attacked by kidnappers was empty, even as a weeping widow begged for her daughter’s life and police confirmed that multiple passengers were abducted.

The incident happened on April 18, 2026, along the Lagos Benin Expressway in Edo State. Gunmen ambushed a GUO Transport bus with registration number FA 280 YJ, shot the driver dead, and took passengers into a nearby forest.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT pic.twitter.com/8X23qgPKeR

— guotransport (@guotransport) April 21, 2026

The Edo State Police Command launched a rescue operation and confirmed the facts. The bus was carrying five passengers. One female passenger was rescued with gunshot wounds and taken to a hospital. Three others were abducted.

PRESS RELEASE

UPDATE ON GUO BUS KIDNAPPING INCIDENT ALONG BENIN-LAGOS EXPRESSWAY
……EDO COMMAND RESCUES NINE (9) KIDNAP VICTIMS FROM TWO (2) SEPARATE INCIDENTS @EdoPoliceNG is pleased to inform the general public that all victims abducted during the recent kidnapping… pic.twitter.com/XxdUk6xvGG

— Edo State Police Command (@EdoPoliceNG) April 24, 2026

But GUO Transport told a different story. The company issued an official statement claiming the bus was dispatched empty from Lagos to Onitsha and the driver was killed by armed robbers. The statement acknowledged the driver’s death but said nothing about kidnapped passengers.

The company’s claim quickly fell apart. A distraught mother, a widow, came forward in a viral video. Her daughter was on that bus, traveling from Benin to Lagos for school when kidnappers struck. The abductors called demanding a ₦50 million ransom.

They kidnapped my pikin for Ore road yesterday, the weeping woman said. They called and told me to bring ₦50 million. I don’t have ₦50 million. I be widow o, Christiana no get papa. Please, I need help.

The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights condemned the company’s denial. The rights group said GUO’s statement contradicted verifiable facts, including reports from the Edo State Police Command that clearly indicate passengers were indeed kidnapped. Such misleading statements are not only insensitive to victims and their families but undermine public trust, CDHR said.

Public anger has been intense. Many Nigerians on social media have accused GUO of trying to evade responsibility. Some suggested the driver may have been carrying unauthorized passengers, a practice known as illegal loading, but even that theory did not excuse the company’s categorical denial of any passengers on board.

The Edo State Police Commissioner, Monday Agbonika, ordered intensive bush combing operations across the Ore Benin corridor, deploying anti kidnapping units, tactical teams, local hunters, and vigilante groups to search for the abducted victims.

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The driver’s body has been deposited in a hospital mortuary and the bus has been recovered. But as of this report, the three kidnapped passengers have not been found. Their families are waiting, and one widow is still pleading for help she cannot afford.

GUO Transport has not retracted its statement or explained why it claimed an empty bus while real Nigerians with real families remain missing in a forest somewhere, held for ransom.

The conclusion is clear. GUO Transport lied. And that lie put Nigerian lives at risk while the company worried more about its reputation than about getting those passengers home alive.

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