350 still missing – Eye witness

By Peter Duru, Makurdi
From Naka to Makurdi, Guma to Gwer, tales of woes and lamentations rented the air following the invasion of Fulani herdsmen who have staged persistent attacks on Benue communities and villages leaving in their trail deaths and destruction.

The carnage has left many homeless, women widowed and children orphanned. The remains of the crisis dot the landscape of the affected communities like a sour thumb while huge refuge camps have been set up at Yogbo, Ortese and Daudu and the border town of Kadroko all in Guma local government area of Benue State.

The remains of the villages after the attack

Even the outrage that has repeatedly greeted the bloodbath in the communities and villages has not in any way calmed frayed nerves as the fighting and killings continue.

Not even the killing of some military personnel by the invading herdsmen and consequent drafting of heavily armed security personnel to the troubled spots has stopped the bloodbath.

There is no gainsaying that Benue is under a siege by the marauding herdsmen who invade the state from neigbouring Nasarawa State in a commando fashion, hitting their targets with reckless abandon and utter disregard for sanctity of human life.

They have turned the hinterlands of the state into a theater of war, leaving their victims heartbroken, overwhelmed and in total despair.

Only recently, in Mbagwen, over 30 persons were butchered and buried in mass graves by the invaders; it’s all tales of woes across the agrarian state.

Benue has become a crisis zone and the awful situation seems to have overwhelmed the state government.

Governor Gabriel Suswam, accompanied by the paramount ruler of the community, Ter Nagi Chief Daniel Abomste, dressed in mourning robes, recently visited the displaced persons in Naka and pleaded with them to sheath their sword and refrain from any act that could escalate the crisis.

He assured that the state government was partnering with the Federal Government on the issue, maintaining that decisive steps would be taken to address the situation; yet the killings and wanton distraction of property has continued unabated.

Abomste decried the invasion, describing it as another jihad aimed at conquering the Tiv nation. .

Abomste urged the Federal Government to move fast to arrest the situation in view of the consequence of the crisis escalating.

Suswam’s peace moves got the attention of his Nasarawa counterpart which led to the setting up of a peace committee by both governments with a view to addressing the persistent skirmishes.

But shortly after the Naka killings and destructions, the Fulanis struck again at Mbagwen on the outskirts of Makurdi town, leaving over eight persons dead and several property destroyed.

But the bloodbath got to a head, last week, when over 50 persons were reportedly killed and property worth millions of Naira destroyed by the Fulani herdsmen in a renewed attack on Tiv communities in Guma local government area of Benue.

The crisis has taken a dangerous dimension and is also creeping into Makurdi, Benue State capital, with refugees fleeing the fighting streaming into the town.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that the areas hardest hit by the renewed attack include Tiv settlements of Dooga, Kpata, Lokobi Ajimaka, Ekeae, Giza, Yogbo, and Mbagwem.

Other communities include, Zongo Akiki, Nyijir, Tse Taki, Agbeke all in Gwer West, Guma and Makurdi in Benue and Kadroko in Nasarawa State.

It was also gathered from an eyewitness who fled the fighting with his wife and children from Kpata village, Mr. Tyopine Agar, that the number of the dead could exceed the figure already declared, stressing that as many over 350 persons are yet unaccounted for.

According to him, “many of our people were in the farms when the crisis erupted and, up till now, no one knows their whereabouts”.

Agar alleged that the Fulani herdsmen, assisted by the Alagos residing on the border of Benue and Nasarawa states in Doma town, laid siege to their villages, shooting and burning their houses and property.

Moved by the level of devastation in the communities, Speaker of the Benue House of Assembly, Mr. Dave Iorhemba, who paid an unscheduled visit to some of the refugees camped at the LGEA Primary School Kadroko, lamented the recurrent attacks on the Tiv communities.

Iorhemba, who regretted the “insensitivity of the Nasarawa government” to the plight of the victims of the attack, called on the Benue and Nasarawa governments to take decisive steps to check the carnage.

He also implored the two states to act on the recommendations of the peace committee set up by the states by releasing a white paper on the findings.

He called on the National Emergency Management Agency to step in with materials to assist the displaced persons who are in their thousands.

Iorhemba further called on the two state governments to create grazing routes for the herdsmen to forestall further destruction of farmlands of the communities and the consequent bloodbath.

Village head of Dooga, one of the ravaged communities, Zaki Tsashaku, lamented the devastation in his domain just as he called on the Benue and Nasarawa governments to deploy security personnel to the affected communities before the crisis escalates into major towns of both states.

He also pleaded with the Nasarawa and Benue governments to provide more relief materials to the displaced persons who are currently taking refuge at Yogbo, Ortese and Daudu.