Armed herders allegedly kill septuagenarian, two others in Benue

By Peter Duru, Makurdi

A Septuagenarian and two others have been reportedly killed in an attack by suspected armed herdsmen on Uikpam community, Mbabai Council Ward of Guma Local Government Area, LGA, of Benue State.

The latest attack on the community that is home to a large number of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, has reportedly forced many of the IDPs to flee the camp for fear of more attacks by the invaders.

A former State Assembly aspirant, Mr. Jimin Geoffrey, who hails from that part of the state, disclosed Wednesday on his verified social media handle that among those killed in the attack was a patent medicine store owner, name withheld, who had provided services in the community for some years.

It was gathered from another resident, Dan Ankoh, who claimed he fled the community and now resides in Daudu, that the armed men invaded the community Tuesday evening at about 7pm, shooting sporadically in the community and at anyone they saw.

“After shooting in several places, they retreated and disappeared. The painful aspect of this is that Uikpam is the only community in Mbabai Council Ward of Guma LGA that we still have human beings.

“After the attack last night, two corpses were discovered including that of a popular patent medicine store owner and another young man. But later today (Wednesday) we discovered the body of Baba Iorhemba  Ikpanju, who was almost 80 years.

“The way they killed the old man is so painful. What did he do for them to murder him in such manner? A man that is so harmless.

“It is obvious that they want to take over the entire Mbabai and occupy it while our people continue to live in IDPs camps. That is the sad reality of what is happening presently and nobody is doing anything about it.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent, DSP, Udeme Edet, could not be reached for comments.

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