₦airaland Forum

At least 17 people, including a Mobile Police officer, have been reportedly killed following an attack by armed invaders at a rural market in Abande settlement of Mbaikyor Ward, Turan district, Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State.

Locals told our correspondent on the telephone that the attack, which occurred on Tuesday, was carried out during the Abande market day, when residents were buying and selling goods. A former Supervisory Councillor in Kwande LGA, Akerigba Lawrence, also said the attackers opened fire on traders and residents, killing several people on the spot. He said shops were also looted, with traders alleging that cash and goods worth more than N150 million were taken before the entire market was set ablaze.

Lawrence explained that as of about 11:55pm on Tuesday, bodies of some of the victims had been evacuated to Jato-Aka by personnel of the Mobile Police Force stationed in the area.

He listed those confirmed dead to include Iornunbe Agba, Chia Kile, Terseer Shenge, Mker Ugbe, Emmanuel Agba Ortswen, Gbinde, and a Mobile Police officer who was the unit commander on duty at the time of the attack, among others.

The former local government official noted that several other residents were still missing as of press time.

Lawrence added that the latest attack has heightened fears among residents of Turan and neighbouring communities over what he described as worsening insecurity in the area.
The affected Abande community is close to Anwase, another community where more than 28 people were reportedly killed during attacks on Christmas Day in 2024.

Residents further alleged that since the beginning of the year, repeated attacks in the area have claimed more than 76 lives, including those of security personnel.

The residents said the Abande community and surrounding settlements, which lie close to the Nigeria–Cameroon border, have little visible presence of Nigerian security forces.

Meanwhile, the Police Spokesperson for the Benue State Command, DSP Udeme Edet, has confirmed four deaths in the attack.

“On 3rd February, 2026, at about 5:30pm, the Divisional Police Officer, Jato-Aka, received a distress call that suspected armed herder bandits, in large numbers, had attacked police personnel stationed at Abande Community as well as members of the community.

“During the ensuing confrontation while police operatives were responding to the distress call, one Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) attached to 13 Police Mobile Force (PMF), Makurdi, who was on special duty at Abande Community, was fatally injured.

“Regrettably, four members of the community also lost their lives as a result of the attack by the bandits.

“Following the incident, combined teams of police operatives and other security agencies have been mobilised to the area to secure the community, conduct a thorough search, and forestall further breakdown of law and order. The deceased persons have been recovered and deposited at the mortuary,” she said.

Edet added that in response to the attack, the Commissioner of Police, Benue State Command, CP Ifeanyi Emenari, has directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations to immediately proceed to Jato-Aka with additional Mobile Force personnel and Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) to coordinate intensive operations, track the perpetrators, and effect their arrest.

DeclanR:
Time to empower our local vigilantes and fortify them with charms

Lionnation:
Akuko

Immatex:
In any other sane country except in Africa, the present political class including the weak President should have packed up or been thrown out by brunt force.

The primary responsibility of government is the security of lives and property, the maintenance of order and security, Nigeria has a very weak and inefficient government.

Instead of dying like flies in Nigeria, isn’t better Nigerians donate themselves for medical experiments in serious countries, at least they will be dying for a good cause!

hopeforcharles:
Hmmm. This country is fast becoming a failed State. A country where people are mass slaughtered like animal is no State. It's a berserk of a State.

Jakumo:
Put yourself in the shoes of Nigeria's president. An Islamist insurgency has been smoldering in northern Nigeria since 2009, erupting into spot-fire flames of terrorist massacre spreading from the north due south over more than a decade before you were elected as the Nigerian Head of State.

Over a lifetime you have forged solid ties to the Nigerian military's top echelon, that paid off when a coup poised to claim your very life was reported and preempted. In response to the coup plot you overhauled the Nigerian military top command to remove the moles and Islamist traitors disguised as top brass. With new service heads in place, your administration collaborated with international partners to repulse the Islamist invasion that has now grown into a clash of conventional military forces that MUST be tamped out swiftly. Oh, Nigeria will get by with a little help from her friends, of whom Uncle Sam bears honorable mention.

If you can imagine yourself as a head of state who has done all that he can to revamp the military for the task at hand, while reaching out to The USA and other Western democracies for military assistance as a wiser alternative than blundering into any alliances that might be proposed by China or Russia, then now think how you would feel if your name and your political party's name are parroted and berated following every single attack launched by Islamist guerilla forces in Nigeria.

If you couldn't be bothered to read my hypothetical musings, the upshot of my rambling is that guerrilla warfare and Asymmetric Warfare in the newly dawning Drone Age, are inherently unpredictable and prone to confounding the expectations of even the most technologically informed military intelligence analysts in existence.

Thanks be to Great Almighty God, American military boots are on the ground in Nigeria, meaning the tide will visibly turn against the Islamist hordes swarming the Nigerian hinterland, in a manner that will please even the most jaded critic of Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, the nation's diplomat-in-chief known for his eloquence of few words, each imbued with hard-earned wisdom.

Jakumo:
Put yourself in the shoes of Nigeria's president. An Islamist insurgency has been smoldering in northern Nigeria since 2009, erupting into spot-fire flames of terrorist massacre spreading from the north due south over more than a decade before you were elected as the Nigerian Head of State.

Over a lifetime you have forged solid ties to the Nigerian military's top echelon, that paid off when a coup poised to claim your very life was reported and preempted. In response to the coup plot you overhauled the Nigerian military top command to remove the moles and Islamist traitors disguised as top brass. With new service heads in place, your administration collaborated with international partners to repulse the Islamist invasion that has now grown into a clash of conventional military forces that MUST be tamped out swiftly. Oh, Nigeria will get by with a little help from her friends, of whom Uncle Sam bears honorable mention.

If you can imagine yourself as a head of state who has done all that he can to revamp the military for the task at hand, while reaching out to The USA and other Western democracies for military assistance as a wiser alternative to any blundering into any alliances that might be proposed by China or Russia, then now think how you would feel if your name and your political party's name are parroted and berated following every single attack launched by Islamist guerilla forces in Nigeria.

If you couldn't be bothered to read my hypothetical musings, the upshot of my rambling is that guerrilla warfare and Asymmetric Warfare in the newly dawning Drone Age, are inherently unpredictable and prone to confounding the expectations of even the most technologically informed military intelligence analysts in existence.

Thanks be to Great Almighty God, American military boots are on the ground in Nigeria, meaning the tide will visibly turn against the Islamist hordes swarming the Nigerian hinterland, in a manner that will please even the most jaded critic of Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, the nation's diplomat-in-chief known for his eloquence of few words, each imbued with hard-earned wisdom.

Racoon:
God please save this nation. The happenings are not palatable at all.

hopeforcharles:
Hmmm. This country is fast becoming a failed State. A country where people are mass slaughtered like animal is no State. It's a berserk of a State.

Jakumo:
Put yourself in the shoes of Nigeria's president. An Islamist insurgency has been smoldering in northern Nigeria since 2009, erupting into spot-fire flames of terrorist massacre spreading from the north due south over more than a decade before you were elected as the Nigerian Head of State.

Over a lifetime you have forged solid ties to the Nigerian military's top echelon, that paid off when a coup poised to claim your very life was reported and preempted. In response to the coup plot you overhauled the Nigerian military top command to remove the moles and Islamist traitors disguised as top brass. With new service heads in place, your administration collaborated with international partners to repulse the Islamist invasion that has now grown into a clash of conventional military forces that MUST be tamped out swiftly. Oh, Nigeria will get by with a little help from her friends, of whom Uncle Sam bears honorable mention.

If you can imagine yourself as a head of state who has done all that he can to revamp the military for the task at hand, while reaching out to The USA and other Western democracies for military assistance as a wiser alternative than blundering into any alliances that might be proposed by China or Russia, then now think how you would feel if your name and your political party's name are parroted and berated following every single attack launched by Islamist guerilla forces in Nigeria.

If you couldn't be bothered to read my hypothetical musings, the upshot of my rambling is that guerrilla warfare and Asymmetric Warfare in the newly dawning Drone Age, are inherently unpredictable and prone to confounding the expectations of even the most technologically informed military intelligence analysts in existence.

Thanks be to Great Almighty God, American military boots are on the ground in Nigeria, meaning the tide will visibly turn against the Islamist hordes swarming the Nigerian hinterland, in a manner that will please even the most jaded critic of Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, the nation's diplomat-in-chief known for his eloquence of few words, each imbued with hard-earned wisdom.

attackgat:
https://dailytrust.com/policeman-16-villagers-killed-in-benue-market-attack/?noamp=available

Immatex:
Sorry but I won’t put myself in the President’s shoes!
Go back and watch his pre-election interview at Chatham House, for every question he answered, he was playing god, and overconfident! He knew he will win the election by hook or by crook, he also knew that Nigeria was plagued by insecurity which he heavily criticised as an opposition politician but was mute in the dark days of Buhari, yet he had and has no robust plan on how to better police and secure Nigeria and Nigerians.

He might be a sneaky politician but he is a failure in almost every parameter of governance, currently managing a pantry 4/10 score of effective leadership.

I won’t put myself in his smelly shoes because I am not the president.

What’s most disgraceful is the government’s response everyday when known bandits kill helpless Nigerians, they act like nothing happened.

America will not solve a problem will refuse to solve!