Fulani Herdsmen
• Ortom seeks deployment of more policemen
• Committee moves to arrest cattle rearers over destruction of farmland in Osun
No fewer than four persons were yesterday killed and several others injured in a renewed attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen on Mbahimin community in Gwer-East Local Council of Benue State.
The suspected herdsmen, numbering over 50 who were said to be carrying dangerous weapons, invaded the community in the early hours of Wednesday, killing and maiming the unsuspecting residents who are mostly farmers.
A member of the community, who identified himself as Titus Nor, said that apart from those killed, about 12 others, including a pregnant woman and a 10-year-old child sustained serious machete wounds.
The state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Mike Gusa, lamented the attack but, however, urged members of the community not to take to reprisal attack.
Also, the police spokesman for the state, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Moses Yamu, who confirmed the incident, said men of the command had already been drafted to the area and promised that the police would ensure law-abiding citizens go about their businesses without molestation.
Governor Samuel Ortom has appealed to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to deploy more policemen to Benue State to forestall further breakdown of law and order as the influx of herdsmen has become overwhelming day in and day out.
Ortom, who made the request through the Assistant Inspector- General of Police (AIG) in-charge of Zone Four, Alkali Baba Usman, who paid him a courtesy call at Benue People’s House, Makurdi yesterday, appealed to farmers across the state not to take laws into their hands but always report to appropriate authorities.
In another development, Chairman, Osun State Committee on Peaceful Co-existence between Fulani/Bororo and Farmers in the state, Mr. Mudasiru Oguntola Toogun, has urged residents of Ajenisuwa community and farmers in the state to co-operate in apprehending the runaway herdsmen who allegedly invaded farmlands and destroyed crops in the area.
Toogun gave this advice while addressing residents of Ajenisuwa, a farm settlement at Oke Osun, Osogbo, during an on-the-spot assessment of a cassava and plantain farm destroyed by cattle rearers in the area.
He, therefore, directed the people of the community to fish out the herdsmen in the area and their accomplices to avoid further damage to their farmlands.
Besides, he urged the people to be security conscious by refusing to harbour Fulani/Bororo cattle rearers in their domain illegally to guide against destruction of farmlands.
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