Again, marauding herders kill five in Benue

Suspected herdsmen on Tuesday stormed another community in Guma local government area of Benue State and murdered five people in their sleep.

Several people were reportedly injured in the two hours attack on Tse Ahentse community in the Ndzorov council ward of the local government.

It was gathered that the herdsmen had stormed the sleepy community between 4:00 am and 6:00 am on Tuesday and shot sporadically.

A native of the community who did not want to be mentioned said that the herders invaded the village and held the people hostage for hours and in the process, killed five people and injured several others.

The chairman of the Guma local government, Caleb Aba confirmed the invasion of the herders to newsmen on Wednesday and stated that five people were killed.

According to him, “it (the attack) happened early hours of Tuesday. These innocent people were sleeping in their homes between 4 am and 5:30 am when suspected herdsmen attacked the community and started shooting. And they killed five members of the community and injured two.”

‘There was no earlier provocation at all. The village is called Tse Ahente. Operation Whirl Stroke is situated at Iordye very close to the scene but I wonder what kept them for so long because when the shooting started, somebody ran to inform them but they couldn’t come to the scene until they ensured that the herders had done what they wanted and left before they came to the place,” the source said.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, SP Catherine Anene said that four people were killed and one person had been hospitalized.

She added that investigation into the attack was ongoing.

(Nigerian Tribune)