DAILY POST
Benue State, the nation’s food basket, is trapped in an endless crisis.
Residents of over 200 villages now find themselves targeted on a daily basis by heavily armed herdsmen, reportedly cloaked in military camouflage.
DAILY POST gathered that over the past three months, the toll has been staggering, with over 500 lives allegedly lost within three local government areas in Benue South Senatorial District, known as Idoma land.
Villages in Otukpo, Apa and Agatu LGAs are bearing the brunt, with reports of marauders butchering several locals, leaving many homes completely burnt down and numerous residents still missing.
The perpetrators, however, remain elusive, with no one claiming responsibility for the heinous attacks, though locals point fingers at ‘Fulani herdsmen.’
Bloodbath returns to Agatu
Agatu, which enjoyed relative peace in recent years, has once again been visited with bloodbath, extending to neighbouring communities and local government areas like Apa and Otukpo.
The latest wave of violence that ravaged Agatu, left communities like Ogwumogbo, Ikpele, Ejima, Okokolo, Olegomakwu, Olegonyilo, Nahem, Ocholonya, Abugbe, Ugboju, Odugbeho and Olegobidu decimated, with numerous lives lost.
What started as a mere flicker of unrest in Agatu has now erupted into a full-blown war, spreading to villages like Umogidi and Entekpa areas of Adoka in Otukpo.
Idoma youths face armed men with limited resources
A local source revealed that over 700 armed men have surrounded Otukpo, Apa and Agatu villages with no security personnel in sight to challenge them at the moment.
Despite the valiant efforts of Idoma youths from Ohimini who volunteered to defend their ancestral homes, they are faced with formidable adversaries armed with highly sophisticated weapons like MG3, Heckler & Koch G3, AK47 and other dangerous arms.
Villagers have also continued to bemoan the scarcity of security personnel in the affected areas.
A local vigilante, who refused to be named, recounted a recent encounter with security personnel, who rather than offering protection, warned against any retaliatory actions.
He told our reporter, “We, the youths from Ohimini and Ugboju, came here to help our brothers and sisters, but things turned out really tough.
“The security people who were supposed to protect us didn’t do a good job.
“When we got here, one of them warned us that if we shoot without caution, they would take away our guns.
“We only have dane guns, also called ‘shakabula’, with 10 rounds of ammunition.
“But when we went into the forest, things were much harder than we thought. The enemies we faced were too difficult to handle, and we had to retreat.”
In a widely circulated video obtained by our reporter, one of the volunteers currently on the battlefield revealed what the villagers were going through.
According to him, the attackers seem to be on a mission to erase the Idoma community from the map of Nigeria.
