The Taraba State Police Command has confirmed the discovery of seven travelers’ bodies amidst the dense foliage of a forest.
This revelation comes in the wake of an attack on an 18-seater bus, which was targeted in an ambush at Gamkwe village within the Donga Local Government Area of the state on Tuesday.
Loaded with passengers from Zako Biam in Benue State, the vehicle was en route to Maihula in the Bali Local Government Area of Taraba State when a group of assailants, believed to be vigilante members, launched an attack and struck the vehicle with deadly force.
Reports said the vigilante members had been mourning the death of their member when they sighted the bus, and attacked it in anger, claiming the passengers’ (Tivs) kinsmen were responsible for the death of the vigilante member.
After the attack, 15 of the passengers including women and children were declared missing by the police.
In a statement on Wednesday, the State Police Commissioner, CP David Iloyonomon, said his men found the seven dead bodies in the bush while on patrol to control rising tension between the Ichen and Tiv ethnic groups in the Donga Local Government Area of the State.
The commissioner said the seven recovered dead bodies included five women, a baby and a man.
