A video posted on social media shows the moment a truck rammed into the crowd. Screenshot/X
In the early hours of April 21, a joyful crowd was descending a hill outside Billiri in Gombe State following an Easter Monday service. The procession to the top of the hill is a tradition that Christians in Gombe have observed for three decades. But this year the event ended in tragedy when a trailer truck filled with grain crashed into the crowd, killing six people and injuring more than 30.
Initially the police attributed the accident to faulty brakes. However, an investigation has now confirmed what the participants already knew – that the driver, named as 28-year-old Usman Mohammed, had deliberately plowed into the marchers.
The terrorist attack followed weeks of anti-Christian violence in Nigeria, which claimed over 100 lives and displaced many thousands.
Driver “increased his speed”
Andele Tadi and David Yohanna, of the Gombe South Emancipation Forum community watchdog, issued a statement following the incident. They relied on eyewitness reports to dispel misconceptions about what had happened. Tadi and Yohanna reported that the driver of the 18-wheel truck was going at 10-15 kilometers per hour. “But as soon as he saw the crowd ahead of him, he increased his speed and ran into the group from behind them without ever honking his horn.”
“After running into the group the driver stopped the vehicle, ran towards the police who were watching the incident in real time but did not lift a hand to help any of the victims,” the statement read. “The police officers quickly put the driver in their vehicle and drove away with him, leaving behind them both dead and live bodies trapped under the loaded trailer.”
Following the fatal incident, the Gombe State government formed a committee comprising Christians and Muslims to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash. It has now concluded that it was not an accident but a deliberate attack. Gombe police have charged the driver with causing death by dangerous driving.
“A total of 36 persons were involved and at the moment 18 of them are still receiving treatment at the federal teaching hospital and the specialist hospital in Gombe,” said committee chairman Rambi Ayala, in comments quoted by Daily Post.
Ayala named the six deceased as Grace David, Clement Lakason, Ephraim Ibrahim, Faida P. Uslas, Rejoice Mela, and Praise Ayuba.
Third vehicle-ramming attack in six years
It is not the first time that Christians marking a religious holiday have been targeted in Gombe State in majority-Muslim northeastern Nigeria. In 2019, a Muslim police officer drove his car into members of the Christian Boys’ Brigade at Easter, killing at least eight. And on Christmas Day 2024 a minibus crashed into a procession of Christians, injuring more than 20. “Three crashes in six years, all during Christian processions, have left Gombe’s faithful shaken,” according to an opinion piece in The Cable, which questioned whether the events could be considered a coincidence.
“Christians have only two days… in the entire year when they use the road (not blocking it) for religious purposes, but yet they’re the ones being murdered. Are we to take these as isolated incidents? Are we to be that naive?” echoed Tadi and Yohanna.
A local resident, Nathaniel Chechera, told Morning Star News that “Christians who were simply out to express their faith and joy were forced into mourning.” “Such attacks have become a pastime for terrorists who derive joy in killing Christians as they see these acts as jihad and worship of Allah,” Chechera said.
The Gombe truck-ramming followed a series of brutal attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. Between March 24 and April 13, suspected Muslim Fulani militants invaded numerous Christian communities in Plateau State, killing at least 126 people. The worst single attack – at the start of Holy Week – claimed the lives of 56 people, including 15 children.
