Mob set wedding-bound bus ablaze in Plateau, kill 12

No fewer than 12 travellers from the Basawa community in Zaria, Kaduna State, were killed during an attack in Mangu, Plateau State, on Friday.

Eleven others sustained injuries and are currently receiving hospital treatment.

The victims, a group of 31 men, women, and children, were travelling in an 18-seater bus belonging to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, when assailants attacked them around 8pm.

Report indicated that the travellers were heading for Qua’an Pan LGA to attend a wedding ceremony when they ran into a mob.

The Chief Imam of Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’a Wa’ikamatis Sunnah, Sheikh Suleiman Haruna, who confirmed the incident to journalists, said the corpses have been deposited at Mangu General Hospital.

There were 31 travellers in the bus. Now we have 8 corpses in the hospitals. We have asked the security personnel to help recover the remaining four bodies. We were together with the chairman of Mangu LGA, and he has been up and doing on the matter, “ the Chief Imam said.

Ibrahim Umar, one of the survivors, narrated that, “We were heading to Qua’an Pan to attend a wedding ceremony of our brother when we missed the road because we didn’t know it. We stopped and asked some people for directions, but before we knew it, they surrounded the vehicle, shouting that we should be killed.

They started beating and attacking us with dangerous weapons. The mob killed the driver first and then attacked others. They burned the bus with the corpses inside. We are now in the hospital, receiving care.”

When contacted, the spokesperson of the state police command, DSP Alfred Altau, said, “The police were aware of the incident but would issue a statement regarding it later.”