From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi

The Benue State government has condemned in strong terms, the renewed attacks on some Benue communities by suspected herdsmen.

Recall that in the last few weeks, no fewer than 20 persons have been killed and many others injured by suspected herders in Logo and Guma Local Government Areas of the state.

In the Logo attack, at least, 14 persons were killed and several other brutally injured after the herdsmen invaded Mou and Mchia villages last week while the villagers were asleep.

Reacting to the attacks, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Animal Husbandry, Alhaji Shehu Tambaya described the attacks as mindless even as he called on security agencies to wade into the matter and bring the perpetrators to book.

He noted that aside from the Logo attack, the armed herdsmen have continued to attack communities in Guma and Makurdi LGAs killing people every now and then in the last few weeks.

“If you put together all those that have been killed in cold blood in the last few weeks by these invading herdsmen, they are not less than 20. This is very sad and disheartening especially as they are unprovoked attacks.

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“That’s why we will not be tired of calling on security agencies to rise up to their responsibility of protecting the lives and property of Benue people and also bring the perpetrators of this dastardly act to book.”

Tambaya while positing that the grazing law being enforced in the state was not to witch-hunt anybody as it is being believed in some quarters, expressed worry that mischievous people have continued to work against the law.

“But let them know that no matter how hard they try, they can never intimidate us into repealing the law. The Benue’s anti open grazing law has come to stay because it’s the only solution we have found to the perennial farmer/herder clashes in the country,” Tambaya noted.

He consoled with families of those who lost their lives in the attacks even as he prayed God to grant those who are still hospitalized as a result of the attacks quick recovery.

The Governor’s aide also condoled with victims of the recent flood which ravaged 16 LGAs of the state and killed 23 persons, even as he called on the federal government to assist those who have lost their property and farmlands to the flood.

 

 

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