Nigeria’s security situation continues to deteriorate as suspected armed herders launched a deadly assault on Afia community in the Ukum Local Council of Benue State, killing at least 11 people in the early hours of Tuesday.
The latest attack follows the massacre of over 50 farmers just five days earlier in the Ukum and Logo local councils.
The Ter Ukum, His Royal Highness Iyorkyaa Kaave, condemned the attacks during a security meeting held in Makurdi, describing them as unprovoked and deliberate acts of aggression by marauding herders.
The monarch suggested that the attacks were part of a larger plan to displace local farmers and seize their land.
“These attacks started on Thursday in Logo and spread to Ukum on Good Friday. We are still counting losses, more corpses are being recovered, and some people are still missing,” Kaave reported.
“They killed eleven people on the spot, while several others sustained varying degrees of injuries, with scores still unaccounted for,” he added.
Kaave contrasted the current wave of violence with the peaceful coexistence that once existed between local communities and Fulani herders in the past.
He pointed out that the herders of today are different from those who came to the area in the 70s and 80s, when they peacefully coexisted with the locals, bringing their families and cattle during the dry season.
“We want the President to know that these Fulani people are different from the ones we settled with in the 70s and 80s. Those ones came in the dry season with their wives, children, and cattle to stay with us. But now, they come with cattle and AK-47s, attack our people in their sleep, flee, and later return to occupy their homes,” Kaave lamented.
Directly addressing President Bola Tinubu, the Ter Ukum declared: “The President should get this clear, we don’t want to settle with murderers. These people are coming with a hidden agenda to kill and occupy, which they are no longer hiding.”
The ongoing violence in Benue State has left many residents in fear for their lives and safety, with the situation continuing to spiral out of control as herders target more farming communities.
