One Killed as Herdsmen Attack Benue Community

Benue State which is located in the middlebelt area of Nigeria has continued to suffer in the hands of irate Fulani herdsmen unleashing mayhem on residents.

 

File Photo

 

No fewer than seven persons on Friday were said to have been killed in an attack carried out by suspected herdsmen on Mkgovur village, a Tiv community in Buruku Local Government Area, Benue State.

 

A Punch correspondent gathered that herdsmen invaded the community with guns and machetes at 8am and that several villagers were injured in the attack.

 

While one of the villagers, identified simply as Tyosase, described the attack as unprovoked, the leader of the Benue State chapter of Miyetti Allah Cattle Rearers Association of Nigerian said the refusal of the villagers to allow the herdsmen to stay might have been responsible for the attack.

 

The resident said, “I had travelled to the village on Friday, only to wake up early in the morning to see Fulani herdsmen invading our village as early as 8am. The men, who were in large numbers, were fully armed, shooting sporadically. They entered our houses, shot people and maimed many.

“At the time I escaped from the village, about seven lifeless bodies were on ground, while several persons cold not be traced. Several persons sustained varying degrees of injuries.”

 

Confirming the attack, the leader of MCRAN, Mr. Garus Gololo, told a correspondent that the herdsmen who perpetrated the attack came from Taraba State and went to Mkgovur village on Friday but were resisted by the villagers.

 

He said, “Our agreement now is that any Fulani man not known to the host community should not be allowed to stay in any community in Benue, so when the herdsmen entered Mkgovur village, the villagers refused to let them stay. I think this was what provoked them to have invaded the village this morning.”

 

The Police Public Relations Officer, Moses Yamu, confirmed that one person was killed and two others injured and taken to the general hospital in Gboko.

 

According to the PPRO, a man, who was injured on his right wrist by herdsmen whose cattle were trying to enter his farm, was rushed to the hospital, treated and discharged.

 

Yamu alleged that youths from Tongur then attacked the herdsmen and scattered their cattle at Mkgovur, where three persons were injured and one died on the way to General Hospital, Gboko