10 feared killed by herdsmen in Benue

• Imo indigenes in UK urge govt to stop attacks
• Fault national grazing bill

No fewer than 10 persons were yesterday feared killed in Gaambe-Tiev in Logo Local Council of Benue State by suspected Fulani herdsmen. Several others were reported missing and many others left with injury.

Former Senior Special Assistant to Gabriel Suswam (former governor of Benue State) on Media, Mr. Joseph Anawa, told The Guardian that the attack took place at about 7:30 a.m. in Adayohor village along Uver-Gov Sevav Road.

Anawa said the victims, who were macheted on the stomach and the neck, met their untimely death while on their way to the farm located around Adayohor, adding that the injured persons had been hospitalised at the NKST Hospital in Anyiin.

But reacting to the incident, a member of Benue State House of Assembly representing Logo Constituency, Kester Kyenge, lamented the killing of his people.

He, therefore, urged the state government to be responsive to the people’s carnage by deploying enough security operatives to halt the killings, noting that the attacks on the community are too many in a shortwhile.

Efforts to get the reaction of the state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Moses Yamu, failed as at the time of going to press.

Meanwhile, members of the Imo State Union in the United Kingdom (UK) have expressed concern over the current state of affairs in Nigeria, particularly as it affects the southeastern zone.

The union, which is also worried about what it described as “the escalating ethnic conflicts” in the country, noted with dismay “the massacre of innocent and hapless Nimbo natives in Enugu State and the alleged destruction of their property by the so-called Fulani herdsmen.”

It noted that apart from the Nimbo killings, there have also been reports of several attacks attributed to the Fulani herdsmen in different parts of Igboland.”

In a statement signed by its President, Chuks Ogbonna and Secretary-General, Chief Frank Abanihi, the union said: “It is an undeniable fact that the Igbo people have a chequered history of insecurity in Nigeria. The recent beheading of an innocent Igbo woman of Imo origin in Kano is a good example and brings back the very sore and fragile memories of previous planned massacres of the Igbo in Nigeria.”

“It is very disheartening that since the past and current killings, no tangible or visible attempt has been made to bring the culprits to book. This is a matter of concern to us again, that these recent incidents will as usual, be swept under the carpet thereby encouraging the perpetrators to engage in further violence against the Igbo people.”

The union, therefore, called on the Federal Government to provide adequate security in the region and to pay without delay adequate compensation to the families of those who lost their loved ones and property.

It said that compensation would surely go a long way to heal and assuage anger in the area.