Sacrilege: Suspected herdsmen invade Benue community, kill 5 injure many others

From Attah Ede,Makurdi 

From Attah Ede,Makurdi 

Gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have launched fresh attack on Entekpa ward in Adoka district of Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State, killing five persons.

The attack also left several others injured and many properties destroyed while the community has been deserted for fear of further attacks.

Chief Oliver Inalegwu, Ward head of Entekpa, who confirmed the incident said that five people were killed  instantly and many others sustained varying degrees of injuries as the herders invaded the area.

According to him, the incident happened on Monday evening at about 6pm, adding that the village is now empty as there is nobody there again.

” We went there with the council chairman this morning(Tuesday)and it was bloody everywhere. It was herdsmen who attacked the village yesterday.

Also confirming the incident, Chairman of Otukpo Local government Council, Prince Maxwell Ogiri, said he was just coming from the scene of the incident.

According to him, yesterday, he got the information from the people that there were suspected strangers in their community and started to alert one another. 

“Initially, it was not just strangers. There were strangers and many cattle. So, after some time, they discovered that the issue of the cattle was just a decoy to push their attention towards where the cattle were.So, the cattle was coming from one direction while the attackers came from another direction. 

The chairman further explained that while the cattle were coming from another direction, the suspected armed herdsmen had already gone up hanging on the trees, waiting on that direction before they could strike on the community. 

“And they actually striked, and did a lot of damage. Instantly, five persons were killed. There were others with different degrees of gun wounds. They are in different hospitals now. 

“They burnt a house and that was their first point of attack, and then they began to shoot sporadically on anybody they saw”, Ogiri stated.

He disclosed that military troops have been drafted to the community to forestall further  attacks while he had made on the spot to the area on first-hand assessment of the damages and the extent of the issue.

“We have also  mobilized our civil protection guards, the locals even though the locals are ill-equipped as they have nothing to defend themselves except for these hunting dane guns.

“This is the situation we found ourselves. There was no need for that provocation. It wasn’t that there was a prior crisis and they were expecting that a reprisal was going to come in this situation.

“So far, there is a lot of humanitarian crisis. Because the displaced people are enormous.So many villages were sacked from their habitats. They are much”, he lamented.

The council boss disclosed that the displaced persons are in Adoka-Icho Ward taking refuge. 

“You know that have a culture where We don’t, we don’t stay in the IDP camp. Our people are not used to a camp. Rather, they scatter among relatives, among families, and among others persons in the communities.

“For the moment, the deputy governor has assured me that relief material will be provided for those who are displaced while the police are making efforts to send more troops to curtail the situation”, Prince stated.

Efforts to get reaction from the Benue State command police public relations officer PPRO DSP Udeme Edet proved abortive as she could not respond to calls or texts messages as at the time of filing this report.