Barely a week after suspected armed herders massacred over 50 farmers in parts of Benue State, fresh violence erupted in the early hours of Tuesday as gunmen stormed Afia community in Ukum Local Government Area, killing 11 residents and leaving several others injured.
The Ter Ukum, His Royal Highness, Chief Iyorkyaa Kaave, disclosed in Makurdi while addressing a security meeting convened to assess the spate of violence in the area.
Describing the attack as unprovoked and part of a calculated agenda to displace indigenous farmers, the monarch condemned the continued loss of lives and property in his domain.
“As I speak to you, these attacks began on Thursday in Logo and by Good Friday had spread to several communities in Ukum. We are still counting the dead, recovering more corpses and many of our people remain missing,” the monarch lamented.
According to him, Tuesday’s attack on Afia was particularly brutal, as the armed assailants stormed the community at dawn, firing sporadically at residents and leaving eleven dead on the spot, while several others sustained varying degrees of injuries.
Kaave expressed fears that the armed herders are bent on displacing local populations to seize their lands, noting that the situation has reached a crisis point.
“These people are different from the Fulani we knew and lived peacefully with in the 1970s and 1980s. Back then, they would come during the dry season with their families and cattle. But what we are witnessing now are armed men with AK-47s, attacking our people in their sleep, and returning to occupy their homes,” the monarch stated.
He urged President Bola Tinubu to take decisive action, warning against any move to negotiate with those behind the killings.
“The president should understand this clearly — we do not want to settle with murderers. These people have a hidden but now obvious agenda: to kill, displace and occupy,” he said.