Seven dead bodies of passengers, including five women, a man and a baby, have been found in a forest after an attack on an 18-seater passenger bus in Taraba State.
The passengers were travelling in Selo Mass Transit bus from Zaki Biam in Benue State to Maihula in Bali local government area of Taraba State on Tuesday when the incident happened.
The unknown assailants, suspected to be a local Vigilante group, attacked the bus at Gamkwe village, located at Marraban Baisa in Donga local government area of the state.
The driver of the bus, Mr. Jimen Angera, who escaped the scene of the incident with machete cuts, while speaking with our correspondent on telephone, said the attackers were in large numbers carrying guns, machetes and other light weapons.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Taraba State Command, Mr David Iloyonomon, has confirmed that his men found seven bodies of the passengers, who were initially thought to be kidnapped, in the bush within the area while on patrol to contain a crisis between Ichen and Tiv ethnic groups.
CP Iloyonomon revealed that trouble started on Tuesday when Ichen youths from Mararaba area of Donga reported to the Police Area Command in the area that a Pastor and his church member were missing while on their way to the church.
“On Tuesday at about 3:00pm, the youths found the decomposing bodies of both the Pastor and the other person, that was when trouble started. The Ichen youths went into town and started attacking the Tiv residents, it took the efforts of our men to rescue some of the Tiv people to Takum for safety.
“Today being Wednesday, while our men were on patrol to maintain law and order to ensure that peace return, they found seven dead bodies of five women, one man and a baby, they have been evacuated to the police station,” Iloyonomon stated.
The driver of the bus, while narrating his experience with the attackers, said he left all his passengers in the hands of the gunmen to save his life.
“I loaded 18 passengers from Zaki Biam. Immediately after Maraba, I saw many people in Vigilante Group uniforms, they were many, I suspected something was wrong, I then stopped, one of the villagers told me that I should go, saying two members of the Vigilante Group were killed by kidnappers that is why they gathered, there is no problem, I should proceed.
“As I moved closer, some of the Vigilante Group members started shouting, kill all of them, it’s their people that killed our members, they started attacking the passengers and cutting them with machetes.
“They removed all of us, forced us to lie and face down, my bus engine was still on, when I discovered that it was getting out of hands, I decided to jump up to the bus and left the passengers, my conductor also followed me, all of us were cut with machetes and blood was rushing out of our bodies, that was how we escaped and left the passengers in their hands,” Angera narrated.
Also, the chairman Donga local government council, Hon. Ezra Voka, confirmed the incident to LEADERSHIP on telephone, saying he was already in a nearby forest in search of the victims.
“Please, my friend, I am already in the bush in search of the missing people, we can’t talk much now till when I get more information from here,” Voka stated.
