Herdsmen kill 22 in Adamawa village

Person suspected to be Fulani herdsmen stormed Kodomun village in Demsa Local Government Area of Adamawa State on Monday, killing 22 people.Many of the dead are said to be old persons unable to flee for dear life.

When The Guardian visited the village, yesterday, it counted eight corpses strewn across a field. The bodies of the deceased had gunshot and machete wounds.At about 8.45am, also yesterday, reporters at the scene and villagers who had gathered around the corpses were forced to take to their heels, as the attackers returned, shooting sporadically.

One Urea Simon, who lost his father in the incident, said the villagers had gathered to bury a victim of similar attack on Saturday when the assailants struck,killing the 22 people.

“The eight bodies you see here are not all. There are 14 others in the bush. But we cannot venture there for fear of the herdsmen,” said Simon.The Adamawa State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Ghazzali Mohammed, however, denied there had been fatalities, a claim angrily refuted by traditional ruler, Alhamadu Gladstone Teneke.

“What the Commissioner said is not true. Several people were killed. But I cannot give you the exact number now, because some of the corpses are still in the bush. The 23 Brigade Commander in Yola has just directed soldiers to move to Kodomun, recover the dead bodies in the bush, and rid the area of the attackers,” Teneke told Reuters.