Nine victims of suspected armed herders attack on Sai community of Mbajir ward in Katsina-Ala local government area of Benue State have been buried.
The attack occurred in the early hours of Wednesday, leaving nine people dead, while 15 others, including children, were injured and receiving treatment at a hospital in the area.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP yesterday, one of the survivors, Wilfred Vershima, who confirmed that the death toll had risen to nine, narrated the ordeals of the victims.
He said the military personnel at Sai military Base saved and prevented further killings. “In Sai, we have a military base with five soldiers. We also have local vigilantes”
According to Vershima, “When the armed herdsmen invaded Sai in the early hours of Wednesday with sporadic gunfire, the military personnel responded, and when the residents heard the gunhots, they started moving in different directions for safety.
The assailants moved toward the military Base in the area to attack, but the soldiers repelled them”
“As they were being pursued by the military personnel to where they came, they were matching and shooting anyone in sight”
He further narrated, “When the attack was going on, those soldiers called for security enforcement and two trucks of soldiers came and joined to send the armed herdsmen away. The deaths would have been over a hundred people, but the military personnel stopped it”
VeRs Hima added, “Six victims were buried, and later three corpses were found and buried, and that is nine victims. The injured were thirteen”
A small boy was severely mutilated, leaving him in a pool of his blood. The boy survived and was receiving treatment in the hospital with other wounded survivors. The story was pathetic, and we thank the military personnel who gallantly defended the hopeless people of the community,” the survivor stated.
Talking to his Facebook page condemning the continued attacks on Benue communities, a legal practitioner, Bem- Ephraim Orlunan Ayati, urged Governor Alia and security agencies to protect the lives and property of citizens, “The rains have returned and so have the killings. Farmers are being driven off their farms as harvest time approaches. Their farms have been turned into grazing fields by Fulani herdsmen and their cattle, and our people’s food storage and homes burned down,” Ayati said.
Benue State governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, strongly condemned the attack on the Sai community in Mbajir ward in the Katsina-Ala Local Government Area.
Governor Alia, in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Sir Tersoo Kula, had described the attack as “a senseless assault on innocent citizens”
A government official who pleaded anonymity had linked the attack to revenge following the killing of the Chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Benue State chapter, Ardo Rabo Mohammed and one Yakubu Isa by unknown gunmen along Okwudu Ogoli road in Otukpo local government area of the state recently, after attending a security meeting.
