Taraba Council Chairman Escapes Attack By Gunmen

The Council chairman of Takum local government, Taraba State, Shiban Tikiari escaped death by the whiskers om Wednesday when some gunmen suspected opened fire on his vehicles while travelling to a village.

Tikiari told Channels Television in a telephone interview on Thursday that the incident happened when he was travelling along Takum-Wukari expressway in Kofa Ahmadu village.

He also disclosed that two of the policemen who accompanied him sustained various degrees of injuries in the attack.

The chairman who alleged that the gunmen are Tiv militias said he was on his way back to Takum from Wukari where he and his colleagues from the southern geopolitical zone of the state converged went to pay a condolence visit to their counterpart in the neighbouring Donga council, whose Traditional ruler, Stephen Bayonga, passed on recently.

“The arrangement was for us to meet in Rafinkada so that we can all go to Donga to visit our colleagues who recently loss the first class chief of the area. But on reaching the place, I discovered my fellow chairmen were not there.

“So, I called and I was asked to proceed to Wukari,” he said.

In reaction, the President General Tiv Cultural and Social Association, Taraba state, Goodman Dahida, said he was not aware of any attack.

Confirming the report, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), David Misal, said the attack was carried out by suspected hoodlums and that two policemen sustained gunshot injuries.

According to him, the Taraba State Police Command is working hard to checkmate activities of hoodlums in the area and the state.