Daniel Dawap, a youth leader in Plateau State’s Mangun District, Mangu Local Government Area, has revealed that many individuals arrested in connection with the horrific mob attack that killed 22 wedding guests from Kaduna State were apprehended at local drinking spots, on farms, or returning from the busy Mangu Market—a full two days after the incident occurred.
The suspects were brought before a Jos High Court on Friday, July 11, regarding the lynching of the travelers, which took place in the Mangun community on June 21, 2025.
In the tragic event, a group of 31 wedding guests, journeying from Basawa, Zaria in Kaduna, to Qua’an Pan LGA in Plateau, reportedly lost their way and ended up in Mangun, a community that had been suffering from ongoing bandit attacks.
Believing the travelers were terrorists, enraged youths assaulted them and set their bus on fire, an act that drew widespread condemnation. Police quickly responded, arresting 22 people in connection with the attack two days later.
However, according to Dawap, a significant number of the suspects might be innocent individuals who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The youth leader, who spoke to Daily Post shortly after the suspects were arraigned and remanded at the Jos Correctional Center on Friday, expressed skepticism about how the police managed to identify and arrest the culprits days after the incident.
“Let me make one thing clear here. I am not holding brief for the suspects neither do I support the mob action that led to the unfortunate death of the travelers,” Dawap stated. “No sane person would support such an action no matter the provocation. Yes, our community, like in other parts of Mangu Local Government Area and some other parts of the state have been under constant attacks by bandits and terrorists but that does not give any reason for the mob attack of June 21.”
He continued, “But that said, I can tell you that most of the people arrested who were charged to court today did not even know anything about the incident. Some of them were arrested at Burukutu drinking joints, some while doing their guza (tin mining) work, some guys were arrested right in their farms while two of my cousins were arrested on their way back from Mangu Market.”
Dawap further alleged, “The police stormed Mangun community two days after the incident and began arresting people randomly. Anyone who could not bring out money to settle the police was bundled into a police Hilux and taken away to Jos as a suspect.”
He concluded on behalf of the Mangun Youth Forum, “We want the police to conduct a thorough investigation with a view to unveiling the real culprits instead of bunching all of them together because the innocent ones among them will suffer for an offence they did not commit.”
