BIMPE ADEYEMI
SUSPECTED armed herdsmen have attacked the Abagena Internally Displaced Persons Camp located in the outskirts of Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
No fewer than seven IDPs were reportedly killed during the attack, which occurred at about 2am on Tuesday, while many others sustained varying degrees of injury.
Governor Samuel Ortom visited the camp on receiving the disturbing news for an on-the-spot assessment.
Ortom could not hold back tears as he addressed angry youths.
The angry youths were said to have converged on the Makurdi-Lafia Road to protest the killings on Tuesday morning, blocking the roads with the dead bodies.
Ortom, in a statement, described the attack as inhuman, barbaric and unacceptable.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to live up to his responsibility of protecting Nigerians, noting that in the last two weeks, over 70 persons had been killed in Makurdi Local Government alone, while various communities across Benue were suffering from same militia herdsmen.
“If the Federal Government had taken the issue of militia herders seriously, it wouldn’t have escalated to this level,” the Governor said.
