Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
The Taraba State Police Command has confirmed that at least two persons have died as herdsmen attack villages in Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State, barely hours after President Muhammadu Buhari visited the state.
The command’s Public Relations Officer, ASP David Misal, who confirmed this to our correspondent, said that herdsmen killed one local at Adada village and a reprisal attack in Manya village led to the death of another person.
He said that normalcy had since returned to the area with high deployment of security personnel to forestall further attacks and reprisals.
Earlier, Senior Special Assistant on Public affairs to Governor Darius Ishaku, Hon. Emmanuel Bello, told our correspondent that gunshots intensified as herdsmen moved to invade a village around Takum Local Government Area of the state.
Bello said that some youths in the area had mobilised to go and protect school children at the boarding secondary school in the village where the attackers seemed to target.
The governor’s aide regretted that the attack was coming just days after the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to the state which was supposed to abate the spate of wanton killings by herdsmen in the state.
He wondered why such attacks could happen in Takum that was home to a military barracks and continued as though there was no security presence in the area at all.
The Daily Sun report that crisis on the Mambilla Plateau, in the last couple of days, had claimed scores of lives, despite measures put in place by the state governor to ensure peace across the state.
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari visited Taraba state to herald the long overdue visits to states most affected by herdsmen attacks.