Success Nwankwo
Armed men believed to be vigilante personnel attacked an 18-seater bus carrying passengers from Zaki/Biam in Benue State to Maihura in Bali Local Government Area of Taraba State recently resulting to the abduction of 15 people—including women and children.
Roundoffnews gathered that the incident took place at Gankwe village, which is located in the state’s Donga Local Government Area, along the Donga-Mararaban-Baissa road.
The bus driver, Mr. Mpuuga Mbaave, who managed to avoid death by stabbing, described the attack on his vehicle by armed men dressed in vigilante uniforms.
He said, “I loaded 18 passengers from Zaki/Biam in Benue State to Maihura in Taraba state, and on our way close to Mararaba, I saw many people in Vigilante uniform. I suspected something was wrong, so I parked the vehicle.
“One of the villagers who was passing by told me that I should proceed. According to him, two members of the Vigilante personnel were killed by kidnappers, and the vigilante came to carry their corpses.
“As I moved closer, some of the Vigilante personnel started shouting, ‘kill all of them,’ kill all of them,’ it’s their people (Tiv) that killed our members, and they started attacking the passengers and cutting them with machetes,
“They ordered the passengers out of the bus, forced them to lie facedown. I refused to come down, but when I discovered that it was getting out of hand, I decided to jump out of the bus and ran away. My conductor too followed me. They came after us cutting us with a machete, but we ran for our dear lives,” he narrated.
The chairman of the Doonga Local Government Council, Hon. Ezra Voka, confirmed the news and stated that he was already in the neighbouring forest looking for the missing people.
“Please my friend, I am already in the bush in search of the missing people. We cannot talk much now till when I get more information from here,” he said.