Benue State’s Guma Local Government Area headquarters Gbajimba was under fire yesterday from Fulani herdsmen who turned the town to a killing field.
No fewer than 25 farmers were killed by the militia who bore sophisticated weapons.
No fewer than 50 were injured. A few of them were taken to the hospital in the state capital, Makurdi, where they are receiving treatment.
The attack is a continuation of the onslaught on Tiv villages by the Fulani herdsmen who were suspected to have attacked Governor Gabriel Suswam’s convoy when he visited the area.
Minister of State for Trade and Investment Chief Samuel Ortom who hais from the local government, cried out yesterday.
Ortom lost his house in an earlier invasion.
Narrating how the invasion was carried out, the Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Investment, Abraham Kwaghga, who also hails from the local government, said: The Fulani militia, numbering over 200, launched the attack on the town at 10am, when residents were in the church.
“Some came through the bank of River Benue. Others came through Nassarawa State road and positioned themselves on the west side of Gbajimba town. Those that came through the River Bank launched attack first. Others started shooting and killing indiscriminately. I saw about 20 bodies on the ground,” said Kwaghga.
The governor’s assistant said he took five wounded victims to the Benue State University Hospital Makurdi. He put the number of injured at about 50.
Kwaghga alleged that the Divisional Police Officer(DPO) and his men fled the town, leaving the unarmed peasant farmers at the mercy of the militia.
Doctors of the Benue State University Teaching Hospital recommended x-ray for the victims so as to determine where the bullets were lodged in their bodies.
Mr. Cephas Hough, said five persons with bullets wounds were on admission.
Police spokesman Daniel Ezeala said he was yet to get in touch with his men in the crisis area.
Ortom, a one-time chairman of Guma Local Government told The Nation on phone that “Fulani hired mercenaries have taken over Gbajimba, shooting and killing”.
Benue State Deputy Governor Steven Lawani pledged that residents would reclaim their land being occupied by Fulani herdsmen.
He spoke at a thanksgiving service organised yesterday by the family of the late Conrad Wergba, the deceased Water Resources Commissioner, at NKST Central Church, Wadata in Makurdi.
He described the invaders as terrorists who took the peace-loving people by surprise, adding that working with the Federal Government the state would work towards pushing the invaders out of the land.
Lawani said distribution of relief materials to the displaced would begin today adding that the delay was as a result of the sorting out of logistics details.
The mother of the deceased, Madam Christiana Wergba, said it would have been better if she had died and her son buried her. She said God, however, took him when he was prepared to meet Him.
source: nigerianeye
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