Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Troops of the joint military spike operation known as Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS) have killed two suspected herdsmen who invaded Chembe community in Logo Local Government area of Benue State.
It was gathered that the herdsmen were among those who had stormed the community on Friday night killing two locals and injuring two others.
Sources from the area told our correspondent by telephone that the invaders attacked the community at about 6:45pm and started shooting sporadically in all direction.
Our source who simply gave his name as Terwase said the attack on the community by the herdsmen was unprovoked.
He noted that as soon as the troops of the OPWS were alerted, they quickly swung into action and trailed the attackers into the bush and were able to kill one of them in the process.
It was further gathered from another local that the troops continued searching for the other fleeing members of the armed bandits till early hours of Saturday when they discovered their camp at Arufu in neighbouring Taraba State.
“The troops killed a second bandit at Arufu from whom one AK47 and 10 rounds of ammunition were recovered during an exchange of gunfire. They also destroyed the Arufu camp which they discovered in Taraba State,” our source who confirmed to be a resident of Arufu but did not want to be named said.
The villager said he saw the troops moving the two corpses of the bandits towards Anyii in Logo Local Government area early on Saturday morning.
At the time of filing this report, it was gathered that the troops have intensified patrol in the general area while normalcy has also been restored to the community.
When contacted, the Commander Operation Whirl Stroke, Maj. Gen. Adeyemi Yekini refused to comment on the incident but referred our correspondent to Defence headquarters media team.