The Association of Local Government Nigeria (ALGON) in Benue State raised an alarm on Thursday over the simultaneous attacks by armed invaders in six Local Government Areas in the state.
ALGON chairman, Mike Uba, who spoke at a press conference in Makurdi, worried that in recent times, the armed invaders had sustained mayhem on rural dwellers in what seemed to be coordinated attacks.
Uba listed the six affected local government areas to include Logo, Guma, Kwande, Gwer West, Agatu and Makurdi, saying, “This is the first time that six local government areas are attacked simultaneously.”
The ALGON chairman noted that on daily basis, in recent times, the areas were coming under attacks, adding that on Wednesday alone, seven people were killed in Guma LGA.
He said, “Seven people were killed on Wednesday – three killed in the night while four were killed in the morning – at Yelewata community; the menace is still going on. The security agencies are really doing their best but it would be difficult for them to attend to these attacks simultaneously. Their numbers are not enough to do so at once.”
Uba, who is also chairman of Guma LGA, urged the Federal Goverment to send more troops to the state to combat the security challenges.
Also, the Chairman of Kwande LGA, Orpir Gbande, lamented that the issue of insecurity has been severe in his locality for dual purposes, occasioned by armed invaders and the recent discovery of minerals.
He said that seven council wards of the Kwande LGA had come under simultaneous attacks in recent weeks while their attackers had occupied the deserted homes of their victims.
Gbande, who commended the military deployed to his area in the past few days for wading off further attackers, also appealed to the federal government to deploy more soldiers to maintain tempo.
