Deborah Akinyosoye
Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has said that the recent killings in the state were perpetrated by armed herders who came to the state without cattle.
On June 14, over 100 people were killed by suspected herdsmen in Yelewata and Daudu communities in the Guma Local Government Area of the state.
By Sunday, the death toll had reportedly risen to 200, sparking nationwide outrage.
Speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Monday, Governor Alia said the killer herders, some of who he described as non-Nigerians, entered the state with AK-47s and AK-49s.
According to him, some of them arrive through the Cameroon border.
“Last year, people had gone back home and engaged in farming activities with bountiful produce,” he said.
“But this farming season again, we started experiencing the phase of the new attacks.
“The phase of the new attacks comes this way. Before now, we were talking about the farmers/herders crisis; now it has graduated from there, it has become the question of herders coming in, and the armed men were among them.
“We tagged them ‘the armed herdsmen’. What we experience, generally, is that the herd are not being brought in, but those who are in the frontline fighting out here are only carrying AK-47s and AK-49s.
“What are their aims? They don’t even come with cows. They attack and kill, and after one week, a number of people now come back to occupy.
“What we understand on the ground is a simple equation. A thief will not just come to a community unless there is someone within the community who leads the thief to your house or the community.
“What we have now is that, strangely, it is the fact that the herders had a crisis, the armed herders hijacked it, and now the bandits and terrorists have come in completely.
“That is the situation on the ground.”