Herdsmen kill 10 in Benue

From Joseph Wantu (Makurdi)

TEN persons have been feared killed by Fulani herdsmen in a three-hour invasion of Tyoughatee District in Gwer-West Local Council of Benue State.



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The incident, which occurred last Saturday, has thrown the area into mourning. The marauders also inflicted gunshot wounds on several of the villagers and burnt 50 houses.

The Ter Nagi, Chief Daniel Abomtse, who narrated the ordeal his people to journalists in Makurdi yesterday, decried the incessant attacks on his subjects by the herdsmen. He accused the Federal and state governments of paying lip-service to the security of lives and property of his people.





The monarch, who alleged he had privileged information on the attack before it happened, claimed that he relayed same to the state government and security agencies on May 15, 2012 and wondered why nothing was done to prevent the attack.

"Information had it that the Fulani herdsmen intend to invade Gwer-West from the Obendo, Ijiwo axis through Akpanaja in Nasarawa State into Tyoughatee and Gbaange/Tongov District of Gwer-West Local Council at a location between Mbaku communities in Makurdi and invade the whole of the district, which stretches 16 km of Makurdi-Naka Road and then advance to Naka town, headquarters of Gwer-West. They also planned to attack and burn my palace with explosives and sophisticated weapons," he had stated in the letter to the government.

Abomtse said the violence occurred late last Saturday when the herdsmen attacked Tyoughatee Village for three hours and killed 10 persons.

He expressed shock at the sophistication of weapons and the military tactics employed by the marauders and accused his colleagues in the neighboring local councils in Nasarawa State as accomplices in the killings

The Guardian learnt that about 75 persons had been murdered by the herdsmen since 2011 in four attacks.

Meanwhile, the recent communal clashes, which claimed 25 lives in Lamurde Local Council of Adamawa State, has led to the displacement of 6, 000 residents.

The North-East Zonal Coordinator of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Muhammad Kanar, disclosed this yesterday to journalists in Maiduguri, Borno State.

He said: "As preparations for resettling these internally-displaced persons is in progress, the damage to lives and property is enormous and could run into millions of naira."



http://odili.net/news/source/2012/may/22/12.html

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