Not less than three persons have been killed when gunmen suspected to be herdsmen on Tuesday carried out an attack on Ajokpachi Odo community in Omala Local Government Area of Kogi State.
The hoodlums also pillaged the community taking away motorbikes and foodstuffs after scores of residents have fled to save their lives.
Newsmen gathered that the attack occurred as the community youths, who were on surveillance mission, were ambushed and killed by the suspected herdsmen.
The community residents told newsmen that the herdsmen, who have been fighting the Agatus for some time, were relocating when they met the youths holding a meeting in Ajokpachi Odo and in an exchange of fire, one Musa Sule and two others were killed.
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Nifu Abuka who is a community leader said he spent all night in the bush to escape the attack. He attributed the incessant attacks to the lack of security presence in the area which made the community vulnerable.
According to Abuka, the age long feud between the Agatus and herdsmen in Benue and Nasarawa states have made his community, which share boundary with Agatu in Benue State, susceptible to attacks.
This attack is coming barely a fortnight after the same suspected herdsmen massacred over 20 people in the neighbouring Agojeju Odo community.
“This attack is one too many. Not too long ago, before the Agojeju Odo massacre, the same people had killed about six people in Ajadapa, a neighborhood in Benue State and took over their homes, Abuka disclosed.
“We are perpetually living in fear and don’t know who will be the next victim. Our farms, streams and forests have been occupied by these elements who kill at will.
“We thought that with what happened at Agojeju Odo, the story would have changed by now. Unfortunately, the herdsmen are daily having upper hands, knowing fully well that there will be no consequences to their actions.
“We don’t have arms to defend ourselves. We are begging our governor, Ahmed Ododo, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to act urgently before we are all dead.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman Caretaker Committee of Omala Local Government Council, Marknoble Peter Edibo, who confirmed the incident, lamented how his people have been caught in the web of the feud between the herdsmen and the Agatus in Benue and Nasarawa states, which the local government Area shares boundary with.
He said, “The magnitude of the crisis is too weighty for only the council to bear even as the state government has not relented in its efforts to finding lasting solutions to the crisis.”
He urged the Federal Government to treat the insecurity in the area as a national emergency by deploying security agents to the border communities.
