Benue governor says masterminds of massacre well-armed

Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State says the masterminds of the 13 June massacre entered the state with sophisticated weapons and without cattle.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that more than 100 people were killed in an attack on Yelewata town, Guma LGA.

President Bola Tinubu condemned the attack and tasked security chiefs to end the violence in Benue.

This followed a two-day protest by Benue youths. The protest, which started on Saturday around the Lafia-Makurdi highway, was suppressed on Sunday when the youths marched in the capital city of Makurdi.

This newspaper reported that police fired tear gas at the protesters.

President Tinubu will visit the state on Wednesday for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation, according to a statement by his spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, on Monday.

Mr Tinubu had spoken to Governor Alia on the phone, directing him to comply with an earlier directive on how to end the killings in the state.

Governor Alia speaks

In an interview on Channels Television on Monday, Mr Alia said the assailants, believed to be Fulani militias, entered the state with AK-47s and AK-49s.

He said the new group of people usually move into a particular community following violent attacks by the assailants.

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Mr Alia said some of the terrorists came from Nasarawa and through the Cameroon border.

The governor said the attacks are aimed at disrupting farming activities in the state.

“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.

He added, “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 a 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 on the frontline fighting out here are only carrying AK-47 and AK-49.

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“What are their aims? They don’t even come with cows. They attack, 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.”