By Gideon Njoku
The Taraba State Police Command has confirmed the gruesome murder, on Wednesday, of seven passengers who were on their way from Zaki Biam in Benue State to Maihula Bali in Taraba State. The two States are neighbours.
The bodies of the victims, five women, a man and a baby were discovered inside a bush after the bus in which they were travelling came under a fatal attack.
Initially, it was thought that they were kidnapped. But that thought vanished when the driver of the bus, Selo Mass Transit, who escaped the slaughter with horrifying matchet cuts, told their story. He said he and his 18 passengers came under the attack of a local Vigilante Group which members were out to avenge the killing of two people.
They attacked the bus at Gamkwe, a village within Marraban Baisa in Donga Local Government Area of Taraba State.
The driver, who gave his name as Mr. Jimen Angera, told Journalists that the attackers were in their scores, and attacked them with guns, machetes and other dangerous weapons.
The seven bodies, according to the Commissioner of Police, Taraba State Command, David Iloyonomon, were found by his men in the bush while they were on a patrol to douse a crisis between Ichen and Tiv ethnic groups.
According to the CP, the bloody clash began on Tuesday when “Ichen youths from Mararaba area of Donga went to the Police Area Command in the area, and reported that two people – a Pastor and his Church member – were missing on their way to Church.
His words: “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.”
Narrating his miraculous escape from painful death, the bus driver, Jimen Angera, revealed that to survive, he was forced to abandon his passengers with the blood thirsty Vigilante men.
His story: “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, that 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.”
At the time of filing this report, it was not known if the other passengers escaped, or if their bodies will be found in the bush by Policemen who have besieged the area.
