Five thousand, one hundred and thirty-eight (5,138) people have been killed by marauding herders in Benue State under the administration of Governor Samuel Ortom.
The Executive Secretary of Benue State Emergency and Management Agency, Dr Emmanuel Shior disclosed this to newsmen in Makurdi while giving the humanitarian situation in the state in the past eight years.
Shior said that the figure represented the total number officially collated by the agency in collaboration with affected local government areas.
The SEMA boss further said that 18 out of the 23 local government areas of the state were affected by incessant attacks by suspected armed herders and its attendant killings since 2015.
Given the breakdown of deaths, Shior said; in 2015, 1,177 deaths were recorded, in 2016, 809, deaths, in 2017, 43 deaths were recorded, in 2018, 440 people were recorded killed.
He added that the state recorded 174 deaths in 2019, and 88 in 2020 while a colossal death of 2,131 deaths was recorded in 2021, 172 deaths were recorded in 2022 and from January 2023 to date, 104 deaths have been recorded.
“So, in all, the total of death since 2015 till date is 5,138”, Shiro said.
Shiro lamented the renewed attacks in some local government areas of the state shortly after the presidential and national assembly elections.
“There was more influx of herders since the presidential election because Ortom lost his senatorial election,” he said.
The SEMA boss regretted that despite the enactment of the anti-open grazing law and the creation of livestock guards and Community Volunteers Guards, both the federal government and security agencies who should have supported the state government to enforce the law have refused to do so.
“‘The state government also came out with livestock guards and Community Volunteers Guards to ensure the protection of lives and property, with all these measures, there is no end in sight,” he said.
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