The lone survivor of a deadly attack on a commercial bus in Plateau State, Nasiru Garba, has recounted how he escaped death by crouching inside the vehicle as gunmen opened fire on passengers at Dungus Junction, Kuru.
Garba, who worked as the bus conductor, said the attackers struck shortly after the vehicle stopped by the roadside and five passengers alighted. He said the driver had stepped down to collect transport fares when the assailants began shooting.
According to him, the gunmen first fired at passengers who had left the bus before turning their weapons on those still inside.
Garba said, “We parked by the roadside and dropped off five passengers. After they alighted, the driver got down to collect the transport fare.
“I was in front of the bus waiting for the driver. Immediately the driver opened the door to enter, the gunmen opened fire on the passengers who had alighted and those inside the bus.
“All the passengers that had already alighted, the remaining passengers in the bus, and the driver died.”
Garba said he immediately lowered himself inside the vehicle after hearing the first shots. He added that the attackers approached the bus and opened its front door while searching for possible survivors.
“Immediately I heard the gunshots, I bent down in the vehicle. The attackers approached the bus and opened the front door,” he recounted.
The conductor said the assailants took the money in his possession and his mobile phone, which was charging at the time. He said they did not speak during the operation and that he deliberately avoided looking at their faces.
“They collected all the money with me and my phone that was being charged. They didn’t talk while carrying out the act and I didn’t look at their faces,” he said.
Garba also disclosed that he had only started working as a conductor four days before the attack, making the incident his fourth day on the job.
The assault was one of three separate attacks recorded in Plateau State on Sunday night, with 13 people reportedly killed across Jos South, Mangu and Riyom local government areas.
At Dungus Junction, nine people, comprising eight passengers and the driver, were killed after gunmen opened fire on the commercial vehicle travelling towards Jos. Several others sustained gunshot injuries and were taken to hospitals, where some reportedly died.
The Berom Youth Moulders spokesman, Rwang Tengwong, said the time of the bus attack was around 9:40 p.m. He said the victims were travelling to Jos when the attackers struck.
“Among those killed was a member of Operation Rainbow. It is a very sad development and we lament the loss of lives,” Tengwong said.
A resident, Musa Dauda, also confirmed that some of the wounded passengers were taken to hospital but later died from their injuries. He said the bus was subsequently found covered in blood and riddled with bullet holes.
The violence was not confined to the Kuru axis.
At Vodni in Pushit District of Mangu Local Government Area, suspected terrorists reportedly killed two people and injured four others during a night attack. The wounded victims were receiving treatment at a hospital in Mangu town.
Two other people were also killed at Tahoos in Riyom Local Government Area in a separate assault around the same period.
Reacting to the incidents, the Plateau State Government described the killings in Mangu and the Kuru bus attack as deeply disturbing.
In a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Communication, Joyce Ramnap, the government said it was working with security agencies, traditional institutions, community leaders, and other stakeholders to reinforce the state’s security framework through dialogue, intelligence sharing and community engagement.
The government also called on residents of affected areas to provide timely information that could aid the prevention of further attacks and the identification of those responsible.
It cautioned communities against reprisal attacks and warned that retaliatory violence could intensify tensions and frustrate efforts to restore stability.
The incidents present a grim picture: a routine night journey to Jos turned into a killing ground, while the conductor survived only because he dropped beneath the attackers’ line of sight.
Garba’s account also illustrates the randomness of such attacks. He had been on the job for just four days. By the end of his fourth shift, the driver and every passenger around him had been killed, leaving him as the sole witness to the assault.
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