Commuters plying the now busy Jesse-Oben route via Agbor and Asaba have cried out to the two sister states of Edo and Delta to urgently come to their aid and rescue them from kidnappers who prey on their victims daily on this route.
Some commuters who spoke to journalists on condition of anonymity said kidnapping of people has become a frequent occurrence on the route.
They said that they used to pass through the bypass in Benin City to Agbor Bypass via Asaba from Sapele, Jesse and Mosogar but when that route became so bad, the Jesse route became inevitable.
The respondents said it was later discovered that, apart from the smooth nature of that road as at that time, it was even shorter than the long and tortuous journey from the Benin end.
They stated further that the route was peaceful for all road users at the beginning without any form of robbery or kidnapping and wondered how kidnapping now happened daily on the route even with the presence of military men and local vigilantes stationed between Jesse, Iguelaba and Oben areas of the road.
For instance, the daughter of a newspaper vendor in Sapele and other occupants of a Sienna car were just recently kidnapped and taken away into the forest around the Edo area of the road.
As at the time of filing this report, three of those abducted have reportedly been released after paying a huge sum of money to the kidnappers, who now do their daily jobs on this route uninterrupted.
