By Kula Tersoo
Makurdi
No fewer than five persons have been reportedly killed, while hundreds rendered homeless as at least six communities were sacked by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Owukpa communities in Ogbadibo local government area of Benue state.
The sacked villages included Ubafu, Umufu and Atamaka amongst others in Ehaje Ward 11 area of Owukpa.
The herdsmen, our correspondent gathered, first invaded Atamaka in the early hours of Saturday while the natives were yet to leave their beds and took them unawares.
A source from the village said as the people ran for their lives, the invaders continued to destroy and take possession of the entire community.
Manaseh Ogwuche, a resident of Umufu who spoke to our correspondent on phone from Enugu where he had run to, said: “As I talk to you now, the entire Owukpa community is in disarray as people have deserted their homes to either the neighbouring Enugu state or Okpokwu LGA. There are no security men here. The police are not here.”
Blueprint gathered that problem started when the Owukpa people said they were tired of the herdsmen’s continued stay in the land where they, with their cattle, adulterate some ponds that were the only sources of water in the community.
But as the herdsmen declined to leave, the community mobilised and confronted them, a development that sparked commotion where some youths disarmed one of the herdsmen who was carrying a gun, and another snatched one of their motorbikes and fled.
But the herders invaded Atamaka and its neighbouring villages and destroyed some houses as well as their farm produce and occupied the places, while they shot intermittently perhaps to register their presence in the areas.
Efforts to get comments from the police authorities proved abortive as the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Daniel Ezeala, neither picked his calls nor replied to a text sent to him, but the chairman of the council, Mr. Sunday Ojo, confirmed the development.
