Bamise Ayanwole was 22 years old. She was a fashion designer, the last child of her parents, Joseph and Comfort. She had nine older siblings who loved her.
On February 26, 2022, she boarded a BRT bus in Lagos after leaving work in the Ajah area. She never arrived at her destination. Her body was found nine days later.
She sent voice notes from inside that bus. She described what was happening. She reached out the only way she could in the moment she had. And it was not enough.
Bamise’s story broke the heart of a nation. And four years later, the roads that took her have only grown more dangerous.
What Is Happening on Nigerian Highways Right Now
Since the last quarter of 2025, Nigerian highways have been under sustained attack. Passenger buses have been attacked, passengers abducted, some killed, buses destroyed and many cases left unreported even on social media.
The flashpoints are not random. They include the Nasarawa-Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi route, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano, Akwanga-Jos, Owerri-Owerrenta-Aba route, Owerri-Ahuda-Port Harcourt, East-West highway, Agbor-Benin-Ore-Ijebu Ode route and the Akure-Owo-Okene-Lokoja route.
On May 9, 2026, gunmen attacked a Young Shall Grow Motors bus travelling from Akwa Ibom to Lagos at Ogua community along the Benin-Lagos Expressway, killing one female passenger while 13 other passengers were rescued through coordinated bush-combing operations.
One female passenger. Killed on a commercial bus in broad daylight on one of Nigeria’s busiest expressways.
A senior driver with Kings Motors noted that there are many unreported cases because many people are just concerned about their safety. In March 2026 he was almost caught by kidnappers along the Benin-Ore highway if not for a sick passenger who kept stooling every hour and made them escape just ten minutes before the attack.
The attacks being reported are a fraction of what is actually happening on these roads.
The Scale of the Crisis Is Larger Than Most People Know
A report by SBM Intelligence recorded 4,722 kidnappings in 997 incidents between July 2024 and June 2025, with at least 762 people killed. The National Human Rights Commission documented 3,012 kidnappings and 3,584 killings between January 2024 and April 2025.
According to the consulting firm Nextier, 2,452 individuals were kidnapped during 2024, a 31 percent rise over the 1,878 victims of kidnapping recorded in 2023. Urban and rural areas along with national highways have emerged as vulnerable locations where kidnappings occur.
In April 2026, the United States State Department authorized the departure of non-emergency embassy staff and their families from Abuja, pointing to a deteriorating security environment. Some regions of Nigeria now carry the highest do not travel designation.
Women traveling alone or in small groups on commercial vehicles carry a disproportionate share of this risk. They are targeted deliberately. They are seen as easier to control, less likely to resist and more likely to generate ransom payment. That calculation is made by armed men who have done this before and will do it again.
The Routes Where Women Face the Greatest Danger
The Abuja-Kaduna Corridor has been described by Nigerians themselves as just as good as suicide to ply. Armed bandits operate from the forests flanking this road and have stopped commercial buses, separated women from other passengers and taken them into the bush. The road connects the federal capital to the north’s largest city and tens of thousands of people have no choice but to travel it regularly.
The Benin-Lagos Expressway running through Edo and Ogun states has seen multiple attacks on commercial vehicles in 2025 and 2026. The May 2026 Young Shall Grow Motors attack is the most recent documented incident but drivers privately confirm there are many others that families never heard about.
The North-East corridors through Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states remain among the most dangerous stretches of road in the country. These are routes where Boko Haram and ISWAP have operated for over a decade and where any journey without military escort carries genuine life-threatening risk.
The South-West interior routes particularly Akure-Owo-Okene have seen a sharp increase in highway ambushes. The 2022 Owo church massacre made international headlines. The highway attacks that happen on surrounding roads every week rarely do.
The East-West Highway cutting through the Niger Delta remains plagued by kidnapping gangs who operate with a level of local knowledge that makes prediction and interception extremely difficult for security forces.
Why Women Are Specifically Vulnerable
Female passengers face a layered set of risks that male travelers do not carry in the same way.
Kidnappers on Nigerian highways specifically target women for sexual violence alongside ransom. Reports from survivors and human rights organizations consistently document women being separated from male passengers during highway attacks. The journey into captivity carries dangers beyond physical restraint.
Women traveling alone for work, education, family visits or medical appointments often have no choice about which route they take or what time they travel. They board the bus that is available. They travel when they need to travel. Vulnerability on these roads is not a choice for the majority of women who use them. The road is the road.
The absence of family or trusted contacts who know exactly where a woman is, what bus she boarded, what time she was expected to arrive and who to call when she does not, is the gap that costs lives. Bamise reached out from inside that bus. Someone should have been waiting for that message with a plan already in place for what to do next.
What Every Woman Traveling in Nigeria Must Do Before Boarding
Tell someone everything before you leave. Not a vague “I am going to Lagos.” The specific transport company, the bus registration number if you can get it, your seat position, the exact departure time and your expected arrival time. This information is what allows someone to raise an alarm at the right moment.
Share your live location before the bus moves. Before the vehicle leaves the park, share your real-time location with at least two trusted contacts. Do this while you still have strong signal. Rural routes lose connectivity fast.
Sit close to the driver or conductor. The front of the bus is not safe but it is safer. You have more visibility, more access to the door and more proximity to the person most likely to take action if something happens.
Trust the feeling before anything happens. If something about the bus, the driver, the other passengers or the route feels wrong before you board, do not board. No appointment is worth your life. The feeling that something is off is information worth acting on.
Carry minimal valuables visibly. Do not wear jewelry on transit. Keep your phone in an inside pocket or underwear when traveling through known high-risk corridors. Kidnappers scout vehicles at bus parks before departure.
Know the emergency numbers for every state you are passing through. The DSS, local police command and state emergency management numbers are different across states. Save the relevant ones before you travel.
A Safety App Before You Board Any Long Distance Bus
Set up NauNauSOS before you travel anywhere in Nigeria.
Add the people who will respond immediately as trusted contacts. Your mother. Your husband. Your sister. Your closest friend. The person who will start making calls the moment something feels wrong.
Then share your itinerary with those contacts in detail before you board. If something goes wrong and you can tap SOS before the signal is lost, that alert goes out to everyone on your list simultaneously. They know immediately. They can call the transport company, alert the police, contact emergency management and start moving.
The window between something going wrong and being unreachable is often very short on Nigerian highways. Every second before that window closes matters. One tap in that window reaches everyone at once.
This does not replace calling 911 or the nearest police station. It works alongside every other action your contacts take. The difference is speed. One tap while the signal still exists. Everyone notified at the same time. No time wasted searching for numbers.
The Conversation Nigeria Needs to Keep Having
The roads are not safe. The government knows this. Security experts know this. Drivers know this. Women who travel these routes know this better than anyone.
What changes the reality on the ground is not one thing. Security infrastructure, political will, community intelligence, technology and personal preparation all have roles to play. None of them alone is enough.
What every woman traveling in Nigeria can control right now is her own preparation. Who knows where she is. Who has her itinerary. Who has NauNauSOS and is watching for her arrival.
Bamise sent voice notes from inside that bus. She did everything she could with what she had.
Every woman traveling in Nigeria deserves to have more than a voice note. She deserves to have people who already know where she is, what bus she is on, and exactly what to do the moment she does not arrive.
Download NauNauSOS free today. Set it up before your next journey. Share your itinerary before you board.
Come home.
NauNauSOS. Built for students. Trusted by parents. Built for every Nigerian who deserves to travel safely.
