MAKURDI—No
fewer than 10 persons were feared dead yesterday, in an outbreak of fresh
hostilities between Fulani herdsmen and farmers at Tom-Anyiin and Tom-Ataan
communities, Mbaya, Tombu in Buruku Local Government Area of Benue State.
This
is just as the Council Chairman, Godwin Iorsue, the Divisional Police Officer
at Buruku, the Area Commander and other stakeholders in the area, on assessment
tour of the communities, were ambushed and attacked by the herdsmen who had
seized the area and sacked the inhabitants.
Vanguard gathered that the renewed
crisis has created a huge refugee situation in the area with over 300 people
displaced from the affected communities and scores injured in the bloody clash.
A source from one of the affected communities disclosed that the Fulani
invaders stormed the communities late Saturday night, shooting sporadically and
burning down houses, huts, food barn, farmland and economic trees.
The source
said: “As I speak with you, fighting is still raging in the affected communities.
Although I cannot give you a precise figure of the dead, about 10 have been
killed, many are missing and many others sustained injures.” Meanwhile, the
Council Chairman, Mr.
Godwin Iorsue, who spoke on phone, said that he had
invited senior security officers to accompany him in assessing the situation,
when they were ambushed and attacked by the herdsmen. Iorsue said: “It was only
God that saved us. They were over 30 and well armed while we had only four
armed police officers with us. Our cars were perforated with bullets.”
When
contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent Moses
Yamu, who confirmed the attack on the Council Chairman and his entourage, said
no live was lost. Yamu said: “The people ran away from their communities in
fear of a possible attack by Fulani herdsmen, but there were neither killing
nor destruction of property in the area.
“I can confirm that the DPO, the Area
Commander, the Caretaker Council Chairman and selected stakeholders were
attacked by suspected herdsmen when they visited to assess the situation in the
area.” At press time, Vanguard gathered that fighting in the two communities
was still raging.
