‘I hid, watched herdsmen chase my people with guns, swords, cutlasses’

THERE was no escaping the certain death that was fast gaining on him, no thanks to his impaired mobility. But the agents of death are long gone and he is still standing (or better, still, limping). He remains at a loss as to why he is still among the living.
Paul Aboh had narrowly escaped being consumed by the wrath of some Fulani herdsmen who invaded his village, Omusu Edimoga, in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State, on Monday. The assailants murdered in cold blood, no fewer than 24 inhabitants of that village.

The middle-aged man, who was still nursing a fracture on his leg, whispered to our correspondent how he miraculously survived the killing spree in which women and children were not spared.

What really attracted our correspondent to the man was the manner in which he was limping around amidst a crowd of people who had accompanied the state governor, Samuel Ortom, to the community for an on-the-spot assessment of the incident. He kept muttering a couple of words words in Idoma language: “Ayan Owoicho,” meaning, “Thank you, God.”

He spoke with Saturday Tribune through an interpreter: “You can see my condition; I have a bad leg. I am recovering from an accident I had some time ago.” Ordinarily, his condition predisposed him as an easy prey to the attackers. In the face of an attack of such magnitude, Aboh ought to have been one of the first to go. While others were running as fast as their able legs could travel, his own limb could not carry him to safety fast enough. But providence was to smile on him.

“It was the terrifying deafening gunshots that first alerted me to the attack. I immediately limped close to my house. In a twinkle of an eye, people running in a confused state in different directions. As people ran, the sound of the gunfire became fiercer. People were shouting for help but no help came from anywhere. I saw people falling down in the melee. In that moment, I quietly entered my room and locked the door behind me. I hid in a corner. I inadvertently left the entrance door to the house ajar.

“Soon, I heard footsteps. The murderers were in the house. I wished that the ground would give way and swallow me at once. My heart was in my mouth. But to my utter surprise and relief, the footsteps started to recede. They were turning back. They thought there was no one inside.

“Yet, I remained in my melted state. I stood to the wall. But I managed to watch through the window how the herdsmen were chasing the people about with guns, swords, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons. My heart bled,” Aboh said.

He added that he was in the fearful state until security operatives arrived in the community – after the whole place had been turned to a graveyard.

The stories of other survivors who were receiving treatment at St. Mary Catholic Hospital, Okpoga, were no less heart-rending. Madam Rose Oga lay critically ill and could not utter a word when Saturday Tribune correspondent visited the facility.

But her sister, who sat worried by her bed, said Mrs Oga was a widow whose two children were still missing as of the time of the visit. Lying in a bed opposite hers was her daughter, who was suffering from gunshot wounds. Both mother and daughter had been hit by bullets while the whereabouts of the other children remained unknown.

“She is my sister. I am the one that has been taking care of her since they were brought here yesterday (Monday). She had lost her husband. That girl lying on the bed opposite hers is her daughter. She was hit by bullets. We have yet to find her two siblings,” Mrs Oga’s sister said.

For the period Saturday Tribune was in the hospital, the woman did not utter a word but she would occasionally cry. Governor Ortom consoled her.

The daughter, Mary Oga, said she was in primary five and had just closed from school when she saw people running scared and without giving the situation much thought, she joined in. In the process of running with others, she was caught in the lap by bullets.

“I am in primary five. The school had just closed for the day when the incident happened. I was going home with my siblings when suddenly we heard gunshots everywhere. We saw people running, so we joined in. That is the much I can remember. The next thing was that I found myself and my mom here. As I am talking to you, my two brothers are yet to be found,” Mary said.

For a five-year-old whose name was given simply as Idoko, he was too young to realise the blow that a cruel fate had dealt him. His father was missing. His mother died in the Monday attack. He was being treated for bullet wounds on the buttocks.

Lying on his sickbed, he saw the surging crowd of sympathisers and burst into a cry, shouting, “Mummy! Mummy! Mummy! His story, as relayed by a lady who claimed to be his guardian, evoked emotion. Tears rolled down the cheeks of some women who were watching helplessly.

These, among others, were the tales of survivors of Monday’s attack on the sleepy Omusu Edimoga community in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State.

Located in a serene environment, the village with a population of about 1,000 people has a primary school and shares boundary with Ado Local Government Area of the state.

The herdsmen were said to have claimed that youths in the area had rustled their cows before carrying out the invasion.

A visit to the community after the incident indicated that the marauders had a field day perpetrating the dastardly act. Inhabitants of houses close to the bush were the worst hit. There were blood stains. It was a gory sight.

The chairman of the local government, Olofu Ogwuche, said, “Around 11.00 a.m. on Monday, policemen came to my office and said some herdsmen reported at the Divisional  Police Station in Okpoga that some youths in Omusu community rustled their cows.

“The place is far from this village. Without hesitation, I invited the community leaders and some Fulani leaders. We were in the middle of a peace meeting when information got to me that the village had been sacked by herdsmen. Before we could reach the village, they had destroyed the place.

“When we arrived here that fateful day with the help of policemen, we were able to recover 17 corpses which we took to the general hospital’s mortuary at Okpoga.” (Okpoga is the headquarters of the council area and is about about 30 minutes’ drive to the community).

The council chairman said more corpses were recovered in the early hours of Tuesday. According to him, the body of an 11-year-old girl in her school uniform was discovered around noon during the governor’s visit to the community.

The girl, he said, was immediately buried by security operatives because it was learnt that the general hospital’s mortuary could not take any more corpses.

An official of the local government who did not want his name mentioned said the herdsmen might have used the excuse of the alleged rustling to attack the village because they had left the area in the wake of the implementation of the anti-open grazing law in the state.

Most of the herders were said not to unhappy with the law and were forced to move to the eastern part of the country since the council area is close to Ebonyi and Enugu states.

The council official said he believed that the attack was a coordinated one meant to send a message to the state government. According to him, the disgruntled herdsmen had threatened to launch chains of attacks on the state to frustrate the anti-open grazing law.

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