Fresh attacks by herdsmen in some communities of Benue and Nasarawa States have claimed the lives of 36 persons including four police officers.
Eleven policemen were declared missing in Logo local government area of Benue after the herdsmen ambushed them on Sunday evening and early Monday morning.
However, Mr. Richard Nyajo, the Logo local government chairman, in a telephone interview maintained that the casualty figure was higher, adding that many sustained injuries in the attack.
Nyajo said: “The well-armed herdsmen entangled the police personnel on duty in the area at about 6 p.m. and killed several of them, while some fled.
“Though I cannot confirm the total casualty figure but many were reported dead and several others sustained injuries. That is what those who managed to escape told me when I met them.”
Moses Yamu, the State Police Command in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent, ASP, confirmed that the policemen died in an attack that started Sunday evening and lasted to the early hours of Monday.
The statement read in part: “Benue State Police Command regret to report that its personnel came under attack of insurgents at Anyibe, Logo LGA of the State between 6 p.m. of Sunday April 15, 2018 and early morning of Monday.
“Sadly, at the moment, four casualties have been suffered by the Police. Additional reinforcement (including the Air Asset of the Police) deployed by the Inspector General of Police is in pursuit of the murderous gang.
“They shall definitely be apprehended with their weapons of destruction and made to face the full wrath of the law.”
Meanwhile the Benue state Commissioner of Industry, Trade and Investment, Prof. Tersoo Kpelai has stated that more than 56 persons were killed by suspected herdsmen in last Thursday’s attack on Gbeji town of Tsaav ward, Tse-Akaanya and Tse-Hiityo of Lumbuv council ward of Ukum local government area of the state.
Kpelai, who hails from the area, made the disclosure after undertaking on-the-spot assessment of the sacked communities.
He said the figure could be higher at the end of search for the remains of victims in the affected villages.
The commissioner said “So far, we have recovered 33 bodies from some of the bushes and rumbles of burnt houses, huts and farmland and the search is still ongoing, so there is likelihood that the figure would be much higher because three more bodies have just been recovered and many are still missing.
“From what we have gathered so far from survivors, the herdsmen who attacked the border communities came from Chenkei in Taraba State.
“Most of the survivors also accused the Nigerian Army of colluding and leading the militant herdsmen to attack their villages.
“The property and valuables lost in the attack including houses, huts, farmland, economic trees, food barns and seedlings could be well more than N300 million.”
Narrating their ordeal before the Commissioner, Mr. Sunday Kulegwa and Iortaver Idye (the most elderly person in Gbeji town) all pointed accusing fingers on the army, noting that military personnel using official vehicles were not only spotted on the scene of the attacks with the invaders but also participated in the shooting and killing of innocent people.
Similarly, at Tse Akaanya and Tse Hiityo all in Lumbuv council ward, Mr. Timothy Iorfa, Councilor representing Lumbuv ward, Austin Damsa and Terkaa Agera who witnessed the attack maintained that, “men in army uniforms in their personnel carriers and other utility vehicles were seeing shooting and killing people while herdsmen followed the troops burning houses and carting away valuables.
In the Nasarawa, no fewer than 32 persons were killed when herdsmen launched a fresh attack on more than 32 Tiv communities in the southern senatorial district of Nasarawa State.
The suspected killers were said to have carried out the attacks simultaneously in Awe, Keana, Obi and Doma local government areas of the state, leaving 19 others with severe gun and matchet injuries.
At the time of this report, more than 10,000 Tiv villagers currently trapped in Obi local government area following the coordinated attacked by the suspected herdsmen.
More than 200 villages including Uvirkaa, the hometown of a serving commissioner to Governor Al-Makura’s cabinet, Barr. Gabriel Akaaka were sacked.
A visit to some of the affected communities by Vanguard revealed that about 15,000 fleeing Tiv villagers are stranded and are taking refuge in Lafia, the state capital aside the more than 100,000 in different IDPs, camps at Agwatashi, Aloshi, Awe, Adudu, Obi, Keana, Doma, Agyaragu, among other locations.
When vanguard visited Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital in Lafia where eight of the victims are currently receiving treatment as a result of injuries sustained from the attacks, it was also gathered that 5 dead bodies were initially deposited at the hospital mortuary in which out of the number, three were already released by the police for burial.
Confirming the development to journalists in Lafia, President, Tiv Youth Organization Nasarawa state chapter, Comrade Peter Ahemba said the entire Tiv communities in the southern part of the state had been sacked, noting that most of the affected villages were being occupied by the invaders. “As I speak to you, seven corpses of our people killed this morning by the Fulani herdsmen in Wurji village of Keana have just been recovered and brought to Keana town by the Police.
”Also last night, five of our people were killed in the coordinated attacks, with seven others still missing at Kertyo and Apurugh villages in Obi Local Government.
“Three days ago, we recorded eight deaths from similar attacks in Kadarko area, four from Aloshi area, one from Agberagba, all in Keana LGA.
”Another six persons shot at Imon village, were rushed to Obi General Hospital as a result of which one of them later died. This is just a few out of deaths we recorded within the last three days as a result of these senseless killings,” Ahemba explained.
The Tiv youth leader, who alleged that the herdsmen were conveyed in trucks and brought into the state to carry out the attack, told journalists that it was now clear that incessant attacks on the Tiv people were no longer protest against any enacted law but a calculated attempt to exterminate the Tiv community of the state.
He appealed to Nasarawa State government to urgently stop the carnage, and asked the international community to intervene in order to save the state and country from the current bloodbath.
Contacted on the incident in a telephone interview, Kennedy Idirisu, the Police Public Relation Officer, DSP said the command was only aware of yesterday’s attack.
He said: “There was an attack early Monday morning, but the command is yet to be given details as regards to the number of people who lost their lives in the early hours of attacks by unknown gunmen.”
