In one week, no fewer than 136 people were reported dead and 70 others kidnapped as suspected herdsmen shot through several communities in Plateau, Benue and Edo states, burning over 100 houses and inflicting severe injuries on many persons.

Data gathered by Saturday Tribune showed that no fewer than 10 villages were attacked in Plateau State alone in which about 106 corpses were given a mass burial, while intensive search has been in full swing to recover corpses of others killed when the rampaging herdsmen struck the Plateau villages on Sunday night.

The chairman of Kanam Local Government Area of the state, Alhaji Dayyabu Garga, told Saturday Tribune on Thursday, that no fewer than 100 houses were burnt during the attack and the exact number of those displaced by could not be ascertained as the IDP camps in the attacked villages had about 5,000 occupants before it was ransacked.

Garga said: “The number of those displaced is unknown, but more than 5,000 people are in IDP camps. These people require protection. More security men have been deployed to give adequate security in the area.

“The attack affected about 10 villages in Garga, comprising Kukawa, Gyanbawu, Dungur, Kyaram, Yelwa, Dadda, Wanka, Shuwaka, Gwammadaji, and Dadin Kowa, also some parts of Wase Local Government Area.

“As of the last count, no fewer than 106 bodies were given mass burial in my presence on Monday, while many more bodies are still being recovered from the bush and farms across the 10 affected villages.”

He recalled that the bandits numbering about 70 had attacked the villages on Sunday, killing inhabitants at random and forcing the residents to flee their homes to the Garga community for refuge.

In Benue State, it was a similar tale as no fewer than 25 persons were killed as suspected herdsmen unleashed terror on Guma, Logo and Tarka Local Government Areas of the state almost at the same time in the early hours of Monday.

It would be recalled that one of the persons killed was a traditional ruler who was murdered in Gaambetiev in Turan council ward in Logo Local Government Area of the state.

Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hemba (rtd), the Special Adviser on Security to the State Governor, Samuel Ortom, who confirmed the killings to newsmen, said aside the traditional ruler killed in Logo, 15 other people were killed at Tiortyu in the Tarka Local Government Area of the state, while nine other persons were killed in the Guma local government area by the gun-wielding herders.

Edo State also had a taste of the herdsmen’s attack in the last one week as the herdsmen struck at the agrarian community of Odiguetue in Ovia North-East Local Government Area of the state last Thursday, killing five people and inflicting injuries on scores others.

It will be recalled that the community leader, Lt. Commander Anthony Ogie (Rtd), who narrated the incident, said: “For some time now, the herdsmen have been harassing us. You can go to the farm anymore because of them. Last week, around 7 pm, they came close to the houses, shooting, but when the people came out, they went back to the bush.

“Then on Thursday, people were on their farms when the herdsmen came and killed three people. That was in the morning. Later in the evening, they came again and killed two more but this time on the expressway. There is a police check point on the highway. The police saw them, but didn’t do anything,” the man added. (Saturday Tribune)

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