Insecurity: Benue residents still counting losses of repeated attacks

IT is not yet uhuru in Benue State as killings are still ongoing in some communities, particularly in Guma, Logo and Agatu Local Government Areas.

The latest, as at the time of this write-up, was on Monday, August 11 at Yelwata community in Guma Local Government Area where three people were killed and three others sustained life-threatening injuries when they were attacked by armed herdsmen who were on their way to invade the community.

Before moving to Yelwata, the bandits had made an attempt to invade Udei community in the same local government area, but were repelled by police operatives, according to the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Udeme Edet.

‎Penultimate week, a police officer and eight other people were killed in Agatu when suspected armed herders reportedly invaded  Okwutanobe, Okpokpolo, Olegagbani and Ikpele.

‎‎A resident of one of the affected communities in Agatu, who simply identified himself as Odenyi alleged that the suspected armed herders came from Kogi State, launched an attack and ran back.

‎‎Odenyi said: “The attacks started on Friday that week at Okwutanobe where two people were killed. The following day, they attacked Okpokpolo and killed one person.

‎”Two days after, which was Monday, the armed herders invaded Olegagbani where they killed one person, and on Tuesday, the same armed herders attacked Ikpele where they killed one police officer and four people.

‎A week before that, a mother and her son who were working on their farm at Tse-Nyibiam, near Ngbam in Nyiev Council Ward, Guma LGA, were killed by suspected armed herders.

‎The woman identified as MlumunIgbawua and her son, TerkimbirIgbawua, as well as the daughter-in-law (Terkimbir’s wife), were reportedly working on their rice farm when suspected armed herders attacked them.

‎Jimin Geofrey, an aide to the immediate past governor of the state, Samuel Ortom, who hails from the local government confirmed this. He said that the killing of the woman and her son happened on the same farmland where the victims’ husband and father, Benjamin IorhenIgbawua, was murdered in May this year.

‎The beginning

‎How Benue State started experiencing killings in the hands of armed herders could said to date back to 2013. ‎‎Prior to this time, the herders and farmers conflict, which was common in many parts of the country, had been on for ages. The cause was usually when cattle strayed into people’s farmland and destroyed their crops. ‎Then, both herders and farmers adopted conflict resolution mechanisms to resolve any problems that came up.

‎Lending voice to this, the President General Mdzough U Tiv Worldwide, Iorbee Ihagh, a retired Comptroller of Prison said: “Whenever such arose, the community head and the Fulani herdsmen knew how to resolve it. They would calculate the cost of the crops destroyed and owners of the cattle would pay for it to avert any conflict. This had been on for ages until recently.”

Ihagh, the leader of the three socio-cultural groups in the state – Mdzough U Tiv, Ochi’Kidoma and Omn’Igede, who decried the constant attacks, described the invasion of Benue communities by suspected armed herders as nothing but “occupation of Benue valley.”

‎According to Ihagh, the armed herders openly brandish AK-47s and machetes to launch attack on innocent people in Benue. ‎Ihagh, who doubles as President General Mdzough U Tiv Worldwide and who hails from Kwande LGA of the state, decried the devastating effects of Fulani invasion of several communities in the state, said that all communities in Moon council ward had been sacked and occupied by Fulani for the past one decade.

‎He said: “The situation in Moon council ward is pathetic. Every public institution in the area such as schools, health centres and marketplaces were destroyed and many houses burnt down.

‎”Personally, my house in the village was burnt, and nobody can access any community there. When my wife died last year, I couldn’t take her corpse home because herdsmen had taken over the communities. I had to get a land in Jato Aka, headquarters of Turan, to bury my wife. This is not traditional because in Tiv land when any of your loved ones and relatives died, the body must be returned to their ancestral homes.”

‎‎Checks also revealed that conflicts between farmers and herders always occurred during the dry season. Because of the state’s green land,  it used to witness influx of cattle herders from the northern part of the country who found Benue valley and its green land suitable to feed their cows.

However, since 2013, the conflict had snowballed into unprovoked attacks on Benue communities by suspected armed herders with sophisticated weapons.

‎They would invade rural communities and launch attacks on innocent people, killing women and children, resulting in several lives and property worth billions of naira destroyed. This led to about 1.5 million population taking refuge in different camps across the state.

‎A group known as ‘Concerned Professionals, Civil Society Groups, and Religious Leaders,’ led by Gideon Inyom, recently confirmed that the herders’ attack on Benue communities could be dated back to 2013 with no fewer than 6,000 people killed.

‎He stated: “Since 2013, more than 6,000 lives have been lost in herdsmen-led attacks, with 2024 alone recording over 200 killings in the first six months, including mass atrocities in Guma, Logo, Kwande, Gwer West, Agatu, and Apa. This is one too many deaths; one too many mass graves.”

‎Inyom lamented that about two million people in the state had been chased from their ancestral homes and farmlands, with the villages reduced to ashes.

He added: “Their dignity is stripped in overcrowded, makeshift IDP camps that offer no food, safety or hope. These camps are not a refuge. ‎They are open-air graveyards.

‎Children are growing up without classrooms. Women are giving birth without clinics. Entire families are trapped in cycles of trauma and hunger, while the Nigerian state looks away, or, worse, punishes those who resist annihilation.”

It will be recalled that about a decade ago, several people were murdered in some Agatu communities by suspected armed herders. ‎Chairman of Agatu LGA,  Melvin James Ejeh, who spoke to the Nigerian Tribune about the devastating effects of herders’ attacks in the local government before now, said that the 16 communities were sacked by the herders, after which they took over the communities and hoisted their flags.

Then, some of the affected communities in Agatu LGA included Ikpele1, Ikpele 2, Egwuoma, Iwarri, Oguwumogbo, Okpokpolo, Akale and Okwitamobe. ‎Others are Ejima1, Ejima2, Olegadapa, Olamachi, Ogbai, London, Olegamkolo and Olegadaaechono were also attacked.

Ejeh, however, expressed happiness that the lost communities had been recovered due to peace accord between the government and the Fulani.

“Our people have been moving back to their ancenstral homes from October 2024, and this was as a result of peace committee set up by government, the Fulani and security operatives.

“But it has been difficult to rebuild those houses burnt. That is why we have extended ‘save our people’ to Dangote, BUA and other philanthropists to help our people to rebuild their houses.

‎”Public schools, primary healthcare and marketplaces were burnt down and occupied by the Fulani before we came into office in October last year,” Ejeh said.

Checks revealed that the three councils – Agatu, Guma and Gwer West that share boundaries with Nasarawa State, have been the worst hit by armed herders’ attacks.

Chairman of Tiv  Traditional Council, and paramount ruler of Tiv nation, His Royal Majesty, Professor James Ayatse, during the condolence visit of the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu,  to the state made allusion to the ‎persistent cross-border violence that had plagued several communities for years.

“Your Excellency Ma,” Prof. Ayatse said, “our attackers come from Nasarawa State. After attacking us, they withdraw and go back to Nasarawa State.” ‎The paramount ruler appealed to the First Lady to convey the people’s anguish and plea for justice to President Bola Tinubu, stressing that peace in Benue could not be achieved until the sources of these attacks are addressed through decisive federal intervention.

While appreciating the president for his prompt response in tackling the insecurity in the state, Ihagh appealed to the president to sustain the fight against the criminals as well as giving executive order to security chiefs to chase the armed herders away from the North Central, nay Benue.

Notwithstanding the attacks, there is no doubt that Benue is enjoying relative peace. ‎The state governor, Hyacinth Alia, confirmed this while condemning the killing of two young men by local militias along Awajir-Oju road.

The governor said:  “Benue is beginning to experience a level of security stability, and I will not tolerate any attempt by anyone regardless of their status or intentions to instigate unrest or threaten the peace we are working hard to sustain.”

This is in addition to the presidential directive to security chiefs to not only arrest the criminals behind frequent attacks on Benue communities, but also restore peace to the affected areas.

‎President Bola Tinubu had given the directive during his condolence visit to the state after the Yelwata attacks.

The relative peace was observed by the Nigerian Tribune correspondent as some of the federal highways linking the state that had been abandoned by motorists due to frequent killings and kidnappings by the suspected armed herders are now passable due to presence of security men deployed to the state.

‎The roads include Makurdi-Adoka-Ankpa that was notorious for killing and kidnapping. Same with Makurdi-Otukpo-Enugu federal highway. Both that were hitherto abandoned are now being used by commuters.

The Inspector General of Police, Dr. Kayode Egbetokun, had said that several suspects in Benue communities attacks had been arrested.

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