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Newborn baby, mother, 5 others found dead following bus attack in Taraba State
A devastating event unfolded in Taraba State as seven bodies, including women, a newborn baby, the mother, and a man, were discovered in a forest in the region.
The gruesome discovery came in the aftermath of an assault on an 18-seater bus transporting passengers from Zaki/Biam in Benue State to Maihula in Bali Local Government Area of Taraba State on Tuesday.
The bus fell prey to armed gunmen suspected to be bandits near Gamkwe village along the Mararaban Baisa axis in Donga Local Government Area of Taraba State.
The attackers, reportedly wielding weapons like guns, machetes, and other arms, launched a deadly assault on the bus. The driver, Jimen Angera, narrowly escaped the brutal attack but sustained serious machete wounds in the process.
Angera recounted the harrowing ordeal, sharing that the armed assailants were numerous and heavily armed. In a desperate bid to save his own life, he fled the scene, leaving behind the passengers at the mercy of the ruthless gunmen.
“I loaded 18 passengers from Zaki/Biam, immediately after Maraba Donga, I saw many people in vigilante officers uniform, they were many, I suspected something was wrong, I then stopped, one of the villagers told me that I should go. 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 officers started shouting, kill all of them, it is their people that killed our members, they started attacking the passengers and cutting them with machetes.
“They asked all of us to step down from the vehicle, forced us to lay facedown, my bus was still on, when I discovered that it was getting out of hand, I decided to jump into 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 revealed.”
READ ALSO: Passengers missing in Taraba as gunmen in vigilante uniforms attack 18-seater bus
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police Taraba State Command, David Iloyonomon, has confirmed that his men found seven bodies in the bush within the area while on patrol to douse tension between Ichen and Tiv tribes who are mutually suspicious of each other on the incident.
Iloyonomon revealed that trouble started on the 12th (Tuesday) of March 2024 when Ichen youths from Mararaba area of Donga reported to 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 3:00 P.M, 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 returns, they found seven dead bodies of 5 women, 1 man and a baby, they have been evacuated to the police station,” Iloyonomon stated.
He revealed that adequate deployment of security agencies have been made to ensure that pockets of insecurity stopped in the area and avert further escalation.
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