Residents and youths of Abagena community of Benue State at the early hours of Tuesday have blocked the Makurdi – Abuja high way with seven dead bodies of Internally Displaced Persons at Abagena camp killed by Fulani herdsmen.
Vehicular and traffic along the way was disrupted for hours as the youth carrying placards, calling on President Muhammad Buhari to end insecurity and killing of innocent people.
It was gathered that no fewer than Seven dead bodies have so far been counted with many others injured when armed Fulani herdsmen invaded the camp located in Makurdi Local Area of Benue State.
Governor Samuel Ortom while addressing the angry youths, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to live up to his responsibility of protecting Nigerians.
He described the attack on the IDP camp as inhuman, barbaric and unacceptable.
The Governor who called for urgent action against the activities of militia herdsmen across the country said if the Federal Government had taken the issue of militia herders seriously, it wouldn’t have escalated to this level.
He lamented that in the last two weeks, over seventy persons had been killed in Makurdi Local Government alone while various communities across Benue are suffering from same militia herdsmen.
One of the IDPS who escaped death, said he had gone to the nearby bush to ease himself when he noticed armed herdsmen with AK47 but could not shout since he was armless.
According to the man who gave his name as Jona, the incident took place at about 2:00 am on Tuesday and many IDPS on hearing gun shots fled into the bush but seven of them were not lucky.
It will be recalled that within the last one week, armed herdsmen have attacked and killed people at various neighboring communities that share border with Nasarawa state.
The Police Public Relations Officer for Benue State Police Command, DSP Sewuese Anene could not be reached for her comment as her GSM line was switched off at the time of this report.