Groups
allege plot by gunmen to invade Benue
No fewer
than 29 people were allegedly killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen in
Nkei-Dongwro near Miango in Bassa Local Government Area, Plateau State,
yesterday.
A
dusk-to-dawn curfew had earlier been imposed on Bassa following a series of
attacks in the area. But the gunmen have been defying the curfew as the attacks
usually take place in the night.
The National
President of Irigwe Development Association and former member of the Plateau
State House of Assembly, Sunday Abdu, confirmed that 29 people mainly women and
children were killed by the gunmen.
According to
Abdu, some men seen as soldiers took the victims to one classroom with a view
to saving their lives as they had all abandoned their ancestral homes, but it
turned out to be a disguise as the gunmen massacred them as soon as they were
left vulnerable by their perceived protectors.
Abdu, who
said the village was attacked before, expected that the place should have still
have been under the watch of the soldiers.
The state
government said it was a regrettable case of unprovoked gun attack which has
characterised the vicious circle of violence in the Irigwe chiefdom of Bassa
council.
Government’s
reaction came through the Director of Press and Publicity to the governor, Mr.
Emmanuel Samuel Nanle, in a statement.
The Senator
representing Plateau North Senatorial District, Dr. Jonah David Jang, in a
statement he personally signed, asked the government to reconsider another
strategy as the curfew was not working. But he put the death toll at 23.
He said he
received with a deep sense of sadness and outrage, the news of the incessant
violent killings going on in Bassa Local Government, allegedly perpetrated by
herdsmen who have become the usual suspects in that kind of coordinated attacks
in the state, and others in the Middle-Belt.
“The attack
on Tegbe Village, the failed attack on Nzoruvho Village on Saturday October
14th, 2017, and the most recent one on Nkiedonwhro Irigwe Chiefdom in the early
hours of today October 16th, 2017 where about 23 persons were alleged to have
been killed, are condemnable, no matter the justification”, he said.
The Police
Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the State Command, Mathias Terna Tyopev,
said that though the incident happened, he could not give the actual casualty
figure as he was still waiting for his divisional police officer to brief him
on the incident.
The Plateau
killing occurred as hundreds of women, many of whom are septuagenarians, in the
wee hours of yesterday in Ebedei community, Ukwuani Local Government Area of
Delta State protested naked against the continued attacks on residents of the
community by herdsmen.
The protest,
it was gathered, was informed by a series of attacks on the residents and their
farmlands, and the alleged killing of two persons recently by the herdsmen.
Though the
Police Commissioner, Mr. Zanna Ibrahim, had issued warnings against fresh
hostilities in any Delta State community, the protesters were said to have
exhausted their patience during an endless wait for response to their formal
protest to the state government and security agencies.
The women
took to various streets, raining curses on the herdsmen whom they alleged have
destroyed their farm crops, and raped some of them.
According to
one Otutu Chuks, who claimed to be a member of the community, the protesters
marched past the Umutu Police Station in the area, expressing their anger over
the destruction caused by the herdsmen before 6:00a.m. and returned to their
various homes.
One of the
protesters, Madam Eunice Anigala, said on telephone that the protest was
informed by the pains suffered by the Ebedei community at the hands of the
Fulani herdsmen. According to her, the protest will be on weekly basis until
the herdsmen vacate the community.
The
Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah, said the state government was
committed to the protection of lives and property of the people, adding that
security agents had been directed to maintain law and order at the flashpoints
in the communities.
The police
commissioner dismissed the protesters’ allegation, saying that peace had since
returned to Ebedei community, in reaction to their earlier protest.
He said that
the police would deal with anybody caught in any act capable of breaking down
law and order, disclosing that a 24-hour police patrol of the community had
been ordered.
Meanwhile,
the major socio-cultural groups in Benue, including Mzough-u-Tiv, Idoma
National Forum and the Ominiyi Igede have alerted the residents to alleged
plans by herdsmen to attack Benue, urging the Federal Government to tackle the
menace the way she is handling security challenges in the North East and Niger
Delta.
The groups
raised the alarm yesterday when they paid a visit to Governor Samuel Ortom at
the People’s House Makurdi.
The Leader
of the delegation and President General of Mzough-u-Tiv, Chief Edward Ujege,
said the groups had received reports of alleged armed Fulani militia buildup
and convergence at the Nigerian-Cameroon border and at the Agatu border with
Nasarawa State to the North-West of Benue.
“It is being
reliably gathered that leaders of the herdsmen have held clandestine meetings
in Nigeria and abroad to visit mayhem and genocide on the people of Benue
State.
“The plot is
said to be multi-directional and aimed at simultaneously invading and attacking
Benue from every angle so that there would be no escape for our defenceless
people,” Ujege maintained.
The groups
said their visit was necessary to alert the Federal Government, which they
however said had relaxed over the issue.
Ortom
promised that the state government would make land available to the Federal
Ministry of Agriculture for the establishment of pilot ranches in the state.
Ortom stated
that the provision of land was part of the state’s contribution to the
collaborative efforts with the ministry.
He
reiterated his position that the anti-open grazing law was intended to ensure
lasting peace for farmers and herdsmen whom he urged to embrace dialogue and
good neighbourliness.
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