kogiflame.com
Unknown gunmen suspected to be fulani herdsmen on Wednesday allegedly ambushed and killed three farmers in Bagana community, Abejukolo -Bagana road in Omala Local Government Area of Kogi State.
Those who lost their lives according to the villagers include, Samson Ajene, Adah Audu and Monday Ocho.
The son of a popular timber dealer Haruna Ajene who critically injured is presently lying at the General Hospital Abejukolo.
According to an eyewitnesses account, the incident occurred at about 4 pm in the evening when the victims, Samson Ajene and Monday Ocho met their waterloo on their farms at Ojuwo Igboone.
The source said Adah Audu was also killed by the alleged fulani herdsmen while conveying cassava tubers in his keke napep from the farm.
Also speaking about the attack, the Special Adviser to the Sole Administrator of Omala Local Government Area on Security Matters, Mr. Steve Shaibu said the victims were returning from the farms before they were ambushed and killed.
He said before the attack, the villagers around Obakume villages had allegedly made formal reports of the mass movement of some Agatu militias from Benue state to the forest with sporadic gunshots, stressing that they might have killed scores of cows belonging to fulani herdsmen living in those areas.
The Special Adviser added that similar incident had occurred at Iyade near Abejukolo, the headquarters of the council in which the Agatu militias unleashed terror on the herder which reprisals by the fulanis led to many deaths of the natives and burning of houses.
He lamented at the recent killings of these young men who eke a living through farming and plying the road is one too many called on the authority to intensify search at unravelling the perpetrators.
Shaibu explained that his office has written severally on the nefarious activities of criminal elements from Nassarawa and Benue states who used the River Niger to launch attack on fulani herders whose reprisals have always leave the locals with tales of woes.
A Member Representing Omala Local Government Area in the state House of Assembly, Hon. Aliyu Akuh, also condemned the killing and maiming of the locals by unknown gunmen.
He called on the state government and the Security Agencies to deploy their intelligence to arrest the ugly situation.
He bemoaned the unwarranted crises between Agatu in Benue State and the fulani which erupted in 2013 had claimed more than 200 lives while properties worth million of naira have been destroyed.
He added that the government should set up committee of enquiry to permanently resolve the impasse to prevent further preventable clashes between the fulanis and Agatus with its spill over devastation on the people of Omala LGA.
Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations officer, Mr. William Aya who confirmed the incident said both the mobile police and conventional police have been drafted to the area to forestall law a d order.
He added that he was yet to get the actual number of deaths but said the situation has been brought under control.
