Police urge Benue warring communities to end hostility

The Police in Benue State, on Sunday, urged the people of Ikurav and Shitile in Kastina-Ala Local Government Area to end the current hostility among themselves.

Daily Trust reports that the police had blamed killings of people in the area at the weekend on incessant face-off among the warring factions.

Police spokesman for Benue command, DSP Catherine Anene, in a statement issued on Sunday, noted that patrol teams have been detailed to continue to keep peace in the troubled area until there is lasting solution to the crisis.

“The police is calling on the people of Ikurav and Shitile to bring to an end this set back they have designed for themselves.

“Several meetings with the communities yielded no positive result as the communities have not been able to state the reason for the attacks,” she stated.

Anene explained that the clash at Katsina-Ala early hours of Saturday was suspected to be the usual crises between Ikurav and Shitile people, stressing that the Ikurav and Shitile had a history of attacks that the police had been trying to settle over time.

The PPRO added that, “the cause of the clash is unknown. The attacks of 18/8/19 started at a funeral with four people killed and two other villages where five additional bodies were recovered, making a total of nine casualties (dead bodies). It would have been more than that if not for the intervention of the police.”