How Soldiers Killed 5 Taraba Wedding Guests After ‘Mistaking Them For Kidnappers’

Five youths of Bassa village in Ardo-Kola Local Government Area of Taraba State were allegedly killed by soldiers after ‘mistaking them for kidnappers’.

The victims were returning from a wedding ceremony in Garin-Baka around 12 midnight on Thursday when soldiers on patrol assumed they were kidnappers and opened fire on them.

Narrating the sad incident to Daily Trust, Isah Umar, who escaped, said himself and his friends were riding on motorcycles back to their village, Basa, when they ran into the soldiers.

Umar said that on sighting the convoy of their motorcycles, the soldiers opened fire on them.

The student of Taraba State University said while he escaped into the bush, his friend, Habu Yerima who conveyed him on his motorcycle was not so lucky as he was hit by a bullet and died instantly.

The parents of the victims waved aside the killings as a case of mistaken identify, insisting that the soldiers murdered their children intentionally in cold blood.

Bello Aliyu Jen, a father whose two sons were killed, demanded immediate investigation.

“We need justice, the army must be accountable to the murder of our innocent children,” he said.

The five victims whose corpses were deposited at the Federal Medical Centre, Jalingo, morgue are Abdulkadir Bello, Tukur Bello, Philip Yakubu, Habu Yarima and Ya’u Misa.

Two of the victims were students of Taraba State University and Taraba State College of Agriculture, all in Jalingo, the state capital.