15 persons missing as gunmen attack passenger bus in Taraba

Unknown gunmen have reportedly attacked an 18-seater bus traveling from Zaki/Biam in Benue State to Maihura in Bali Local Government Area of Taraba State, leaving at least 15 individuals, including women and children, missing.

The incident, which occurred on Tuesday, March 11, 2024, was said to have happened at Gankwe village along the Donga- Mararaban-Baissa Road in the Donga Local Government Area of Taraba State.

The bus driver, Mpuuga Mbaave who was lucky to escape with machete wounds, told Punch that the gunmen who attacked the bus were 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.

“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.”

The Chairman of Doonga Local Government Council, Hon. Ezra Voka, while confirming the incident, said he was already in the nearby forest searching for the missing persons.