SEVEN dead bodies of passengers including women, a baby, the mother and a man have been recovered in a forest located in Taraba State.
The recovery followed an attack on an 18 seater bus that loaded passengers from Zaki/Biam Benue State to Maihula in Bali Local Government Area of Taraba State on Tuesday.
The gunmen suspected to be bandits attacked the bus at Gamkwe village located along Mararaban Baisa axis in Donga Local Government Area of the state while enroute Maihula.
The driver of the bus, Jimen Angera, who escaped the attack with Machete injuries, revealed that the armed men were in large number with guns, machetes and other light arms.
According to him, he fled and left the passengers with the armed men to escape.
“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.
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.