The Benue State Police Command on Monday confirmed the killing of 10 persons in some villages of Guma Local Government Area in Benue State even as the military’s anti-banditry Operation Whirl Stroke countered, saying there was nothing of such.
Locals had alleged that the killings, which occurred separately on Sunday at different locations of Guma area, also claimed the lives of two humanitarian workers.
Chairman of Guma LGA, Caleb Aba, told newsmen in Makurdi on Monday by telephone that four of the victims were killed in Mbabai council ward and another three people in Nzorov council ward, while one other was killed at night in Uvir council ward of Guma.
Aba who blamed the killings on suspected herders stressed that he was baffled by the resurgence of attacks on his people since there were no issues reported earlier between the villagers and the herders.
The chairman also said that the three dead bodies killed in Nzorov, which included the two aid workers, were evacuated by the operatives of Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS).
Local witnesses also alleged that suspected armed herders had on Sunday killed six people and two aid workers under the employment of 360HSCD, a non-governmental organisation working on HIV/AIDs testing and counseling in Benue state.
They said the bodies of the aid workers were later recovered by the organisation from OPWS.
According to the villagers, the aid workers were first seized by the gunmen before they were eventually killed.
The locals said when they called the telephone lines of the abducted aid workers, their captors who responded confirmed the killings and insisted that they will continue until Governor Samuel Ortom repealed the open grazing prohibition and ranching establishment law of 2017.
However, while the police spokesperson for Benue command, DSP Catherine Anene, confirmed the incident, saying, “Three persons were attacked and killed on their way to farm in Tomanyiin, Guma Local Government Area of Benue State,” the military countered, saying there was nothing of such.
Public Relations Officer (PRO), of Operation Whirl Stroke, Flying Officer, Audu Katty, debunked the killings, stating, “From our source nothing like that happened.”
Meanwhile, the Secretary of Myetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Ibrahim Galma, denied the involvement of his members in the killings of eight people in Guma on Sunday, saying that he only heard from a source in Nasarawa that two herders were killed at the border areas.
