Suspected armed Fulani militants on Tuesday night made incursions into communities in Naka, headquarters of Gwer West Local Government Area of Benue State leaving at least three farmers including an octogenarian dead.
The invaders, who according to reports, were dressed in military camouflage, invaded the area in the evening without cattle and started shooting sporadically to scare residents.
The scene of the attack is reported to be two kilometres from Naka town, which is the commercial nerve centre and home of the wife of Governor Samuel Ortom, Eunice.
Scores of residents including women and children are said to have fled the now troubled areas.
Chairman of the local government, Mrs. Grace Igbabon and paramount ruler in the area, the Ter Nagi, HRM, Chief Daniel Abomtse, who confirmed the gruesome attack and killings, lamented the ceaseless attacks on their subjects by Fulani marauders.
Mrs. Igbabon told reporters that the invaders came on motorcycles, a development that threw the entire area into panic.
Meanwhile, the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom Wednesday reiterated his call on people of the state to defend themselves against attacks on them by armed Fulani terrorists.
The governor, who was reacting to the unprovoked attack and killing of the people in Gwer West, Kwande and Guma local government areas, expressed grief over the sustained invasion and killing of his people.
He described attacks in the affected communities as coordinated.
The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary Mr. Nathaniel Ikyur, said reports reaching him from the team leader of security agencies in Kaseyo near Tse Torkula village in Guma local government revealed that suspected Fulani herders at about 0930 hours on Tuesday shot one Turner Ajar and an unidentified elderly man who were on a motorcycle going to the farm.
“The team of Agro Rangers who were on patrol in the area ran into the attack, unfortunately, the victims had already been killed. Their corpses were taken and deposited at a hospital in Gbajimba, Guma local government area of the state.
“In Kpankeeke, a suburb on the outskirts of Naka, headquarters of Gwer West Local Government, gory images of persons killed by another set of herdsmen littered the streets.
“The Agro Rangers team were alerted and they moved to the location alongside the Army and Police.”
(New Telegraph)
