When Travellers Become Targets By Kabiru Danladi Lawanti, Ph D.
The deliberate targeting and murder of innocent travellers on Nigerian roads, unprovoked, unarmed, and unaware signals the descent of our national conscience into a state of decay. Over the years this criminal activity has become normalised especially in Plateau and Benue State.
The killing of innocent travellers from Ningi, Bauchi State on the dangerous Riyom axis is still fresh in the minds of the families of the victims. These travellers were waylaid, murdered, and burned with their vehicle. Then in 2018 a group of Berom youth in Du community in Jos South local government ambushed and killed General Idris Alkali, a retired Army general passing through the area. His case is still being dragged in court.
In 2021, Muslims travellers from Ikare, Ondo State returning from an Islamic religious event organised by Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi’s home in Bauchi, were similarly attacked and after the attacked, 26 innocent travellers were lynched by these ethni-militias in Rukuba area of Jos city. To this day, no one knows the fate of the 20 or 21 criminals that unleashed this terror on innocent travellers the Plateau State government claimed they have arrested.
However, the recent massacre of an Ahmadu Bello University staff member and his family in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State raised a serious concern about our nation’s moral and security architecture. The victims, who hail from Basawa in Sabon Gari Local Government were travelling for a wedding in Quan Pan in an ABU-branded 18-seater bus. They were attacked by a mob – a criminal ethnic-militia at Mangun Community. They killed 13 passengers, some of the victims were, in a horrific manner slaughtered and the ABU-branded bus was not just burnt—it was symbolically annihilated, as if to erase any trace of their humanity.
This is not new. Even in the previous killings, the ethnic militia tried to erace any trace of their criminal activities by dismembering their victims or burying them in shallow graves. They also ditch their cars or buses they were travelling in into a pond, the way they did to General Alkali’s vehicle or other vehicles discovered with that of Alkali in the Du horror pond.
As if that was not enough, yesterday again in Benue, two young people were similarly attacked and murdered in cold blood. In both cases, their only crime was their identity—real or perceived. These attacks made us to believe that they are not isolated incidents; but of an ethnic cleansing agenda – a systemic and sustained pattern that started in 1987.
If not, where else in Nigeria do we see travellers killed solely because of their ethnic or religious identity? Can anyone point to a single recorded incident—from 1914 to date—in Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Niger, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe, Adamawa or Borno where travellers were ambushed and murdered simply because they were “the other”? The answer, shamefully, is no.
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But we have countless accounts from Taraba (Tinno, Mambilla, Takum), Plateau (Riyom, Barkin Ladi, Jos North, Mangu), Benue (Agatu, Makurdi), Southern Kaduna (Gonin Gora, Kachia, Kwoi) and Edo (Uromi) where the roads became bloodied altars. In these areas, travellers were stopped, profiled, and butchered in a manner that defies all forms of human decency. Some were burnt alive. Others were mutilated. Some were disappeared—never seen again. What is their crimes? They were targeted simply because the MUSLIMS and Hausa-Fulani
What is happening in Plateau and Benue is not just criminality. It is barbarism cloaked in impunity. From 2002 to 2025, we may never fully know how many such travellers have met their end in this manner. Many cases are documented, with grotesque images uploaded by the killers themselves—proud, even gleeful—as they post selfies and videos on social media. Remember the Eid massacre and cannibalism by Berom youth in Jos? The ethnic cleansing on the Mambilla Plateau, in Taraba state? These are not rumours. They were reported, archived, and filed by security agencies.
It is telling that in the aftermath of the latest killings in Mangu, the Chairman of the Local Government attempted a rationalisation of the murder of Zaria wedding-bound travellers. His remarks were not just insensitive—they were dangerous. That a public official would seek to contextualise murder rather than condemn it outright speaks volumes about the ecosystem of impunity that now emboldens these crimes.
More chillingly, screenshots have emerged of individuals and groups on social media—such as Kefas Gyang Pam and the Bokkos WhatsApp group, openly celebrating these killings. In fact, the person who posted that distorted narrative in the Bokkos WhatsApp group was identified as Mador Amen, who lives in Jos. These are not anonymous actors. They are traceable. Yet, these individuals are still walking freely and instigating genocied. No official condemnation. No action.
At the root of this normalised savagery is a breakdown of state legitimacy in enforcing justice. But even deeper is the political infrastructure that incentivises silence, excuses, or even veiled support for ethnic violence. Some politicians and community leaders—whether for votes, vengeance, or victimhood—have chosen to look away or even stir the embers. When they do speak, it is often to obfuscate, not to clarify. To justify, not to prosecute.
We are witnessing the rise of ethnic militias masquerading as victims while turning highways into execution sites. These are no longer communal clashes. These are organised crimes against humanity. And every day we delay accountability, we are deepening the fault lines of Nigeria’s fragile coexistence.
The President and the National Assembly must treat this as a national emergency. A full investigation into targeted killings of travellers must begin, with a special tribunal to prosecute ethnic hate crimes and highway executions. Also, the National Assembly should sanction the security agencies to monitor social media. Those who post celebratory comments or content supporting violence should be investigated under Nigeria’s anti-terrorism and cybercrime laws. Digital footprints don’t lie. It’s time to act.
Governor Nasiru El-Rufai as the Governor of Kaduna State has set a precedent. Local and community leaders who fail to condemn or, worse, excuse these atrocities must be held accountable. Federal funding and recognition should be withdrawn from LGAs that tolerate hate crimes against travellers.
This is not about Christians or Muslims. Northerners or Southerners. It is about our shared humanity and the right to travel without being profiled, maimed, or murdered. If a citizen cannot travel freely from Zaria to Jos without being ambushed and killed for who they are, then the state has failed its most basic duty: to protect life.
