One killed, several injured in Benue in herdsmen attack

In Mbayer Yandev Council Ward of Guma Local Government Area in Benuea State, one person has been killed by herders despite efforts by security agencies to curb these killings, while several people were sacked in Anyii, Logo Local Government Area of the state.

An eyewitness disclosed that the herdsmen attacked Mbayer Yandev on Wednesday night when most villagers were asleep.

He said the herdsmen were brandishing guns and shot sporadically at anyone in sight.

An unidentified member of the community was killed while several others were injured.

In Logo, several residents were seen moving out of the council after the herdsmen attacked Anyii community also on Wednesday night.

Mr. Terwase Apam, a resident of Anyii said the community was under siege from the herdsmen. He called on the state and federal governments to come to the aid of the people.

Also, the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, and legislators from the state reiterated the call for the arrest of Fulani leaders, saying they were responsible for the current gruesome killings in the state.

They made the call during a courtesy call by the Minister of Interior, General Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd.) at the Benue Government House, Makurdi, yesterday.

Both Ortom and Senator George Akume who read the communique of the state and National Assembly members explained that their call for the arrest of the leaders of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore (Cattle Herders Association) was based on their threats last year that they would mobilise to resist the Anti-open Grazing Law passed in the state last November.

They said that except the arrests were made, the people of the state would conclude that the federal government was in support of an agenda to dispossess Benue people of their land.


Responding, the minister, who was representing President Muhammadu Buhari, went with the governor to visit those injured during the New Year massacre at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, assuring that he would convey the message to the president.

Dambazau also assured his hosts that the federal government would take measures to collaborate with the state government to apprehend those culpable and stop the killings.

Dambazau described the killer herdsmen as criminals that must be brought to book, adding that the president was aware of the situation and had directed that the perpetrators of the act must be arrested and brought to book.

He also conveyed the sympathies of the president to the people and government of Benue State.

He assured them that Buhari was committed to ensuring that the federal government does not support people who take up arms against the defenseless in the society to go unpunished.

Dambazau quoted the president as stating that efforts would be intensified to fish out the perpetrators, reiterating that the long arm of the law would catch up with them.

Ortom, in his response, assured the people of Benue that the Anti-Open Grazing Law had come to stay, adding that their land cannot be taken away from them under any guise.

The governor stressed that ranching was the best global practice, not only for cattle but for all livestock.

“The law is not targeted at any ethnic group and I wonder why the herdsmen feel embittered about the law.

“The law was initiated after diligent as well as due consultations and is in the best interest of everybody because it was meant to protect both herdsmen as well as farmers,” he said.

Ortom also sympathized with the families of the victims killed during the protest on Wednesday, describing the attack by the security forces on the young protesters as “insensitive to the current mood” of the people who were grieving over the killing of many innocent persons by armed herdsmen in Guma and Logo earlier in the week.

Mr. Terve Akase, Gov. Ortom's chief press secretary, in a statement issued yesterday,  said the governor condemned the attack on the protesters and promised that the state government would ensure that those responsible for the deaths of the three youths are brought to justice.


The governor appealed to the people of the state to remain calm and resist the temptation to take the law into their hands, as the state government was exploring every lawful means to restore peace in the communities affected by the renewed herdsmen attacks.



Also apportioning blame for the recent wave of violent attacks by herdsmen in the state, the Benue Committee of Elders blamed the security agencies for the recent killings in Guma and Logo, saying it was ironic that despite several forewarnings by the governor on the imminent invasion, the security agencies refused to take heed and had allowed it to happen.



Condemning the invasion of the two local government areas by some armed cattle herders in a statement signed by Hon. Simon Shango and Chief Mike Iduma, chairman and deputy chairman of the group, respectively, the elders said the attacks resulted in the deaths of unarmed and defenceless men, women and children.



The Benue elders added that the invasion also left hundreds of people wounded and many villages destroyed, and sympathised with the governor and the traditional rulers in the state – the Tor Tiv, Professor James Ayatse, and the Ochi’dom, Dr. Elias Obekpa.


The committee of elders saluted the courage and steadfastness of Ortom in the implementation of the Anti-open Grazing Law, which they said was intended to protect both the Benue farmers and the herdsmen in the course of their lawful activities in the state.

This is just as the alarm was raised by the Tiv community in Nasarawa State over skirmishes between residents of Awe and Keane Local Government Area in the state, which both border Benue State, and migrating herdsmen from Benue.

Although it was not verified by the Nasarawa Police Command or the state government, four deaths were reportedly recorded in clashes said to have occurred when residents in the two local government areas resisted attempts by the herdsmen migrating from Benue to force them off their lands.