Again, Herdsmen Sack Benue Community, Kill Four In Plateau

Suspected herdsmen for the umpteenth time went on the rampage Monday sacking the Tse-Torkula community in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, the ancestral home of the immediate past paramount ruler of Tiv, Ochivirigh Akawe Torkula, leaving scores injured and several people trekking for a long distance to Makurdi, the state capital.

In neighbouring Plateau State, fresh attacks by suspected Fulani herdsmen also left four persons dead at three Miango villages in Bassa Local Government Area.

According to an eyewitness, the herdsmen stormed Tse-Torkula village very early in the morning burning houses.

He said: “They came in their hundreds shooting and chasing us away. We are yet to ascertain the number of deaths but a lot of our people are missing.”

Governor Samuel Ortom confirmed the attack but said investigations were still ongoing to give an accurate account of the incident.

This is just as the President-General of Mdzough U Tiv and tribal leader of the Tiv speaking people, Chief Edward Ujege, Monday warned against fake news and claims by the herdsmen that Tiv militias had killed 73 of their cattle in Kadarko, Nasarawa State, as reprisal for the new year day attacks that led to the deaths of 73 persons, stating that the claim was baseless and a mockery of the Benue people.

Ujege who spoke in Makurdi said: “The report is no doubt a mockery of one of the saddest periods in the lives of the Tiv people, Benue State and indeed the entire Nigeria, when 73 people including children, pregnant women and old men were murdered by Fulani herdsmen on new year day and were given mass burial in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

“It is very unfortunate that the fabricators of the phantom attacks in Nasarawa State have chosen to further ridicule and add insult to the injury and pain of the Tiv people by seeking to equate the same number of cows with those murdered in the new year day attacks on communities in Logo and Guma Local Government Areas in Benue State.

“We consider it the height of insensitivity, brutality and impunity that a group of people will reduce the precious lives of human beings to the same level and status with herds of cattle.”
In Plateau State, fresh attacks by suspected Fulani herdsmen in three Miango villages in Bassa Local Government Area left at least four persons dead Monday.

The early attacks on Tafi Gani, Ariri and Nzhweego villages also left several houses and a seven-kilometre vegetable farm burnt.

Five of the attackers were however apprehended by the gallant youths of the area, who attempted to lynch the attackers before they were rescued by the military Special Task Force (STF) which then took them into custody.

Confirming the attack, the National President of the Irigwe Development Association (IDA), Mr. Sunday Abdu, expressed concern that the military who rescued the attackers, who were all middle aged Fulani men, was reluctant to parade them before the press.

Speaking during a security meeting convened in Jos by the STF for stakeholders from Miango community, he called on the Fulani community and the Plateau Peace Building Agency to deliberate on the way forward, noting that the Fulani have never kept their part of the bargain for peace to prevail.

Abdu alleged that the Fulani have continued to attack the natives in spite of several peace meetings.
But reacting, a Fulani leader, Ardo Wada Waziri, dismissed Abdu’s claim, saying the Fulani could not be blamed for the killings without any evidence.

He accused the locals of stealing their cows and attacking herders without provocation.
The Commander of the STF, Maj-Gen Anthony Atolagbe, appealed for suggestions that would end the conflict rather than trading blame.
He also appealed to the media to be patient, saying he would convene a special conference to parade the apprehended suspects in due time.

Meanwhile, the Plateau Youth Council (PYC) has blamed the resurgence of Fulani herdsmen attacks in the state on the failure of government in its primary responsibility of securing lives and property.

In a statement by its chairman, Dr. Fabong Jemchang, the group observed that the farmers-herders’ conflict represents an existential threat to the people of the state without any cogent policy by government to curb it.

It added that while the PYC acknowledges and understands the sensitivity of the issue and the emotions that it evokes, the dangerous, and in many instances, false statements and misrepresentation of facts that have characterised the debate on the conflict, had been quite troubling.