(Community Members. Photo by Daily Post)
Residents of Benue State are terrified as suspected Fulani herdsmen continue to wreak havoc in several villages.
Benue South, the Idoma-speaking region, is taking the brunt of recent attacks that have resulted in numerous fatalities and property losses, according to an online news source.
Nearly 60 people have died as a result of the latest spate of violent attacks in the area, which are mostly concentrated in the Otukpo Local Government Area.
The att@cks, often attributed to suspected armed herdsmen, triggered widespread protests and caused a massive humanitarian displacement crisis, with youths of the community storming the palace of the paramount ruler of the Idoma nation, the Och’Idoma, carrying corpses of those k!lled by the att@ckers.
Many residents suspect that the fresh wave of violence involves retaliatory acts following the June 26 ambsh and murer of the Benue State Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Alhaji Ardo Risku Mohammed, and his associate, Yakubu Isa.
The recent att@cks came after an unidentified Fulani man threatened that the people of Benue State would regret the k!lling of the MACBAN president.
It was reported that no fewer than 10 persons were confirmed d£ad following separate att@cks by suspected armed herdsmen on communities in Otukpo Local Government Area.
The violence began when suspected assailants att@cked Akpachi village in Ugboju community, k!lling two persons and leaving several others injured.
Barely 24 hours later, the att@ckers invaded the Otukpo Nobi community, where eight persons were k!lled and several others injured.
Less than 48 hours after that, residents of Ondo community in Ugboju, Otukpo Local Government Area, fled their homes following a fresh att@ck by suspected Fulani armed herdsmen, who stormed the community in the early hours and opened fire, forcing residents to flee for safety.
About two days later, suspected armed herders stormed Ankpechi community in Oglewu Ward, along the Otukpo-Oweto-Abuja Road in Ohimini Local Government Area, shooting at residents and looting several provision stores, forcing traders and customers to scatter for safety.
Confirming the incident, the Chairman of Ohimini Local Government Area, Gabriel Adole, said the att@ckers were suspected armed herdsmen, disclosing that the att@ck occurred between 8am and 9am, during which one person was sh0t as residents scampered for safety.
‘Our Blood Not Worthless’ Idoma Diaspora Demands Urgent Action Over Benue K!llings
Responding to the att@cks, the Idoma Association in the United States appealed to President Bola Tinubu to take immediate and decisive action to end the persistent k!llings in Benue South Senatorial District.
The group described the att@cks on communities in Idoma land as a sustained campaign of violence lasting more than a decade, describing it as the wanton slaughter and near-total annihilation of the Idoma people by armed herdsmen, and urging the President to intervene given the scale of the tragedy.
Idoma UK Community Urges Benue Govt to Hunt Down Perpetrators
Similarly, the Idoma Community United Kingdom (ICUK) called on the Benue State Government to work with security agencies to identify, apprehend and prosecute those responsible for the recent deadly att@cks on communities in Otukpo and Ohimini local government areas.
The call followed an emergency meeting held by the diaspora group on Sunday in response to the att@cks, which claimed several lives and displaced many residents.
In a communique signed by the President of ICUK, Chief Dr. Williams Obande, the community condemned what it described as the brutal k!llings of innocent Idoma people and urged the government to ensure that those behind the att@cks are brought to justice.
Speaking to a correspondent, one of the protesters at the Och’Idoma palace, Ojima Inalegwu, revealed that 16 people were k!lled in Otukpo Nobi, including her sister and two children, saying, “I am in great pain. As I speak to you now, I’m drenched in tears.”
She lamented that it appeared both the federal and state governments had abandoned residents to their fate.
Another protester, Anebi Ogwu, recounted that a three-year-old infant’s head was shattered while on the back of his fleeing mother, and that a seven-year-old sweeping in front of a local church around 5am was sh0t d£ad, while the clan head of Ai-Ochaikpigwu, Ebegidi Ukwenya, nearly 90 years old, was sh0t in the arm and stomach.
He said that before the att@ck, a young Fulani man had made a viral video threatening an att@ck on the Idoma nation, but that the government failed to take proactive measures, suggesting this may be because such tragedies had not affected top government officials directly.
Another native, identified only as Olotu, criticised the Local Government chairmen of Benue South over what he described as a nonchalant attitude towards the recurring att@cks in the Idoma nation.
He recalled that when the Benue MACBAN president was mur*ered, local government chairmen had rushed to condemn the act on television and radio, but questioned why they had gone silent now that scores of Idoma sons and daughters were being k!lled, describing their silence as shameful.
