A group of heavily armed assailants, suspected to be part of a Vigilante Group, launched a brazen attack on an 18-seater bus traveling from Zaki/Biam in Benue State to Maihura in Taraba State, leaving a trail of chaos and fear in their wake.
Amidst the chaos, 15 passengers, including women and children, vanished without a trace as the gunmen descended upon the bus at Gamkwe Village in Donga Local Government Area of Taraba State.
The bus driver, Mr. Mpuuga Mbaave, narrowly escaped the clutches of death, sustaining grievous machete wounds as he recounted the terrifying ordeal to .
His harrowing testimony painted a grim picture of the attackers’ ruthlessness, armed to the teeth with guns and machetes.
As Mpuuga bravely fought for survival, he described the heart-wrenching scene of passengers being mercilessly attacked and left at the mercy of their captors.
“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 but one of the villagers told me that I should go saying two members of the Vigilante Group were killed by kidnappers, that was why they gathered, that there is no problem, I should proceed.
“As I moved closer, some of the Vigilante Group 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 facedown, my bus 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,” Mpuuga recounted to Leadership.
In the aftermath of the brutal assault, Hon. Ezra Voka, Chairman of Doonga Local Government Council, embarked on a perilous mission into the nearby forest in a desperate bid to locate the missing victims, underscoring the gravity of the situation.
