Jos – A mob stormed a bus carrying mostly Muslim wedding guests in central Nigeria’s volatile Plateau state, killing eight people in the latest attack to hit the region, local sources said on Saturday.
Earlier this month, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu ordered a crackdown on violence in the region.
Ibrahim Umar, who survived Friday’s attack, said the 31 people aboard the bus were travelling from Zaria to Qua’an Pan for a wedding ceremony when their driver got lost and stopped to ask for directions.
“We approached a community at about 6 pm, stopped and asked for the way to Qua’an Pan. Some of them said: ‘these are Hausa people so let us kill them’,” he told AFP by phone from a hospital, where he is being treated.
“They seized the bus that we were in, they started smashing it with sticks, machetes and stones. They beat us and eight among us died,” he said, adding that four people were still missing.
The bus and seven bodies were set on fire, he said.
Mangu local government council chairman, Emmanuel Bala, told AFP local villagers had been on high alert following the recent wave of attacks.
“It is unfortunate that innocent people, Hausa Muslims, were attacked and killed,” he said, adding that they had been attacked by “a mob”.
“Eight people were confirmed dead, I personally went to the place,” he said.
Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, the governor of Plateau state, expressed “shock and sorrow over the tragic mob action that claimed the lives of eight individuals”, according to a statement from his office.
“This is not an occurrence that we will condone.
“We condemn it in all totality, and we have made a pledge that any act of criminality will not be tolerated,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.
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Source: AFP
