At least 28 people were reportedly slain in a new attack by unidentified gunmen who are thought to be Fulani herdsmen in a hamlet in Benue State.
According to information received by Newsmen on Thursday, the attackers terrorized the Mbawa Council Ward in Benue State’s Guma Local Government Area (LGA) from last Sunday until Wednesday night.
Residents were alarmed by the most recent event and accused members of the Nigerian Army and Police of being complicit in the ongoing attacks in Guma LGA.
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A local resident named Barnabas verified the attacks on the Mbawa Council Ward and expressed concern that the troops and police officers brought in to protect the populace had done nothing to stop the herders who were using high-tech weapons.
The resident also said that police officers are asking for N100,000 to look for the bodies of people who were killed on their farms.
“Since 2018 up till today, our community and other Communities in Guma local government have been under Fulani herdsmen attacks. But now it is getting worse, especially for two weeks now, we have not rested in this community.
“Between Sunday and Wednesday, they have killed 28 persons. On Wednesday, being yesterday, they killed seven; on Tuesday, they killed eight; on Monday, they killed seven; and on Sunday, it was six they killed. So that is how it continues, it has become a daily massacre, and it is even close to Internal Displaced Camp (IDPs) in Daudu in Mbawa Council Ward, and the army camp is also there. In fact, soldiers can see those Fulanis with weapons, and they will not do anything.
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“Last week, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in the Guma police division; I don’t know how he managed to get the Fulanis and called all our chiefs and some elders for a meeting with the Fulanis. At the meeting, he told our people that the Fulanis want to come and live in our community and that we should allow them to live with us,” Barnabas reportedly said.
He added: “Recently, the same Fulanis killed 36 persons, and today they are here saying that they want to come and live with the same people.
“There is military and police presence, and every day, they are killing our people; not one, not two, not three. Every day the killing continues, and the federal government and security agencies are not saying anything. This is how people are dying every day. This is genocide; they want to wipe us out.”
He continued by saying that three of our friends and four of the seven people the assailants killed last Thursday were volunteer guards.
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“They were killed, and one was found, and two are still in the bush. It is now that the people are preparing to use vehicles to go for the second time to look for their corpses, and security agents are here. We even went to the police station here, and DPO asked that we should look for N100,000 to give them to escort us to look for their corpses,” he said.
Barnabas continued to lament, saying that when they went into the bush to retrieve the bodies of those who had been killed with some soldiers and police officers, the security personnel told them not to go any further because Fulanis were in the nearby forest with guns.
“How did they know? For me the security agencies are accomplices in the ongoing killings in our communities,” the citizen said.
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However, as of the time of reporting, the Police Command had not issued a statement regarding the attack or the accusation.
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