From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
Like the Eke Market day in Igboland, Ukohol Market, in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, comes after four market days. The market is located along the Makurdi – Lafia road after Yelwata. Very early, traders from neighbouring communities in Nasarawa, throng the place happily to sell their wares.
The place was a beehive of activities. Locals said most of the villagers who had fallen victims of attacks by herdsmen, in the far hinterland, took shelter in and around the market. It became a normal rendezvous for business men and women as well as fun seekers as those who came to stay open; more petty businesses like beer parlours and others erected stalls in which they sold hot drinks and fried meat, mostly peppered pork.
Some women happily sold food: pounded yam, egusi and okro which is usually garnished with pocho, a local Tiv soup. Life may not have been very easy for them but they were happy, and hoping that the federal government will look the way of Benue IDPs soon and fulfill the promises made to them so they can all return to their ancestral homes.
But their dreams of living a peaceful and free life was far from coming true. Tragedy struck again on November 3, when gunmen suspected to be herdsmen militia attacked the people on a market day, rained bullets on them and sent 18 persons to their early graves.
Since after the killings, findings showed that Ukohol community which used to bubble with commercial activities is now a ghost of itself. Many people who lived there abandoned their homes, livelihoods in fear and left in droves to other places not knowing what the future holds there.
“That was the saddest day of my life. My heart still aches from the killings. We have lived here peacefully and happily, minding our business, only for people to attack us and kill 18 people in one day for no reason. I still don’t know why, “Felix said.
On that day, Felix had given his lovely wife some money to buy, among other things, a local chicken for kegh-sha-shwa, a local Tiv soup, mostly prepared at special occasions or when expecting very important visitors.
He was expecting to host his in-laws who would be visiting him after a long while. Once the wife set out to the market, Felix went into one of his huts where he kept some yams and selected some he thought was good for food.
He was still at it, humming away a Tiv song when it happened. Unknown to him, his wife had gone on a journey of no return. She and others who went to the market were murdered in cold blood by gunmen.
Felix, a farmer, could not hold his emotions while speaking with this reporter and couldn’t talk much either. All he kept saying was, “they killed my wife, they killed my wife. She went to market and they killed her. Oh, they killed my wife.”
One could only imagine his pains when his wife didn’t return and his in-laws didn’t get to their destination either. According to him, on hearing the news of the killings at the market, they returned home sad, but for their safety.
Another resident of the community, Fidelis Makondu, who narrated his ordeal told our reporter that a day before the market attack, being Wednesday, November 2, the herders had entered a village close to Ukohol and killed two persons.
“That Thursday when they entered the market, it was as if they distributed themselves because they entered through different places. They came between 3 and 4pm, dressed in army uniforms and they were many, more than 40 in the market.
“The market was full because the area served as a camp for long. Most of the people who were displaced from their villages and had no place to go, were camping at the market. They killed anyone their bullet caught but most painfully, aged people and children; it was very devastating. My uncle and one of my nephews, who was 14-years-old were killed in the attack,” he said.
For Bem Mbakaan, he feared that the killings took a different and dangerous dimension. According to him, the attackers killed the male children and left the females, a development he described as strange and suspicious. He was sure that by the way the herdsmen militia ambushed the people and by their pattern of killings recently, they were up to no good, especially for the male population of the Benue people.
“On the market day around 4pm, we were all busy with our businesses. People came to that market with high hopes and we were all busy transacting our business when herders just came and started shooting at people. People saw them in the market before that time but because they were in army uniforms, no one suspected anything.
“We thought they were soldiers and have come for security but after some time, some boys became curious and was questioning who they were. Yet they didn’t take it serious. Lo and behold, in about 30 minutes, they started shooting people.
“They killed many, including children. They were killing only the male children and left the female ones. In fact, they beat up some women who had female kids and told them to take their child and run away but once they noticed it was a male, they kill the child.”
Mbakaan’s wife was attacked too but she was lucky to escape to a nearby river where she hid by its bank for hours. Not satisfied with the killings, the blood thirsty militia left the market and passing through Tse gum village, they killed two people and also proceeded to Ulohor village where they also killed six other persons, making it 18.
“As I’m talking to you, the place is deserted. No one is there again except soldiers. Everyone have fled for their dear lives. Our food, farm produce, business items are wasting. Children are out of school. People are scattered in places where they have become strangers with no means of livelihood. That is the situation. We are suffering,” he added.
Mbakaan and others called on the government and the security agencies to come to their aid saying: “People ran and left without anything. We are now fugitives in our fatherland. No on had the chance to go and get food. Our people are hungry and living on the streets. We need help.”
Speaking on the security situation in the area, the special adviser to Governor Samuel Ortom on security matters, Paul Hembah, said government took decisive action to normalize the situation immediately after the attack.
He said troops have also been stationed in Ukohol and its environs for check and curtail any such recurrence.
“As far as I know, the situation is normal now. It was normalized immediately after that attack. Those who have not returned are merely out of fear but there is enough security there and on the surroundings.
“We have enough troops there; the police, civil defense, volunteer guards are all there and the locals have also formed their own vigilante working with the conventional security.