Despite police deployments, rampaging herdsmen destroy Gov Ortom’s farm house, kill 2

The deployment of large number of policemen including the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, who was ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari to relocate to Benue, has not done much to halt attacks and killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen in the state.

At least no less than two persons were killed during a Monday afternoon attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Waku village and a part of Gbajimba town, all in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.

Also destroyed during the attack was the state Governor Samuel Ortom’s farm house located in the area.

The attack came after the herdsmen had a day earlier, attacked Yogbo, another community in the same local government, killing six and destroying several properties and farmlands, before they were eventually repelled by the police, who only chased them out of the community.

The Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni and the chairman of Guma Local Government Area, Mr. Anthony Shawon, confirmed the latest attack at the State Police Command Headquarters.

According to Shawon, “The herdsmen, backed by their militia, invaded Waku village this afternoon (yesterday) and killed two persons. They are also getting close to Gbajimba town, the local government headquarters and as I speak with you, they have attacked and sacked Governor Ortom’s farm house in Gbajimba.

“Our fear is that if we are not careful, they might overrun the local government headquarters the way they are going.”

While he commended the police for saving Yogbo from being taken over by the marauding herdsmen, Shawon called on the command to continue to put up a brave fight and make sure the resistance against the herdsmen’s incursion is sustianed.

Earlier, Owoseni restated the commitment of the command to make sure that peace was restored in all the communities under attack in the state so that all the internally-displaced persons will return to their ancestral homes.

READ ALSO: BOKO HARAM: Over 300,000 displaced Nigerians still in Chad, Niger, Cameroon- FG

He said, “Already, the Inspector-General of Police had approved and deployed 15 mobile units of the Force from other states to Benue State; this is aside the Special Forces that have also been deployed to the state.

“We have also concluded arrangements to deploy more personnel to Guma to flush out the criminal elements operating there. We have also deployed to these areas two Armoured Personnel Carriers which were released to us by the DIG out of the five we requested for.

“Police visibility, intelligence capacity as well as deployment of technical assets have already been done in that area and in no distant time, these issues will be a thing of the past.”

 

 

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