Police and Army officials have been fingered by residents after herdsmen recently killed twenty-eight persons in the Mbawa Council Ward of Guma Local Government Area in Benue State.
It was learned that the killings occurred between Sunday and Wednesday.
A resident claimed jihadist terrorists and herdsmen were responsible for the attacks.
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They went further to accuse the Nigerian Army and police of complicity in the daily attacks that have been occurring in the area for a month.
The above accusations were because soldiers and policemen have failed to protect them from the herdsmen, according to Barnabas, a resident of the area.
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He said:
“Since 2018 up till today our community and other Communities in Guma local government have been under Fulani herdsmen attacks. But now it is getting worse, especially since two weeks now, we have not rested in this community.
“Between Sunday and Wednesday, they have killed 28 persons. On Wednesday being yesterday they killed seven, on Tuesday they killed eight, on Monday they killed seven and on Sunday it was six they killed. So that is how it continues, it has become a daily massacre and it is even close to Internal Displaced Camp (IDPs) in Daudu in Mbawa Council Ward and the army camp is also there. In fact soldiers can see those Fulanis with weapons and they will not do anything.
“Last week the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Guma police division; I don’t know how he managed to get the Fulanis and called all our chiefs and some elders for a meeting with the Fulanis. At the meeting, he told our people that the Fulanis want to come and live in our community and that we should allow them to live with us.
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“Recently the same Fulanis killed 36 persons and today they are here saying that they want to come and live with the same people.”
The source explained that when residents went to recover the corpses, some soldiers asked them to stop, saying Fulanis were in the forest nearby with guns.
According to him, the police further demanded a hundred thousand naira (N100,000) to search for the corpses of those killed on their farmlands.
He continued:
“There is military and police presence and every day, they are killing our people; not one, not two, not three. Each and every day the killing continues and the federal government and security agencies are not saying anything. This is how people are dying every day. This is genocide; they want to swipe us out.
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“Among the seven persons they killed on Thursday, four of them were volunteer guards and three were our comrades. They were killed and one was found and two are still in the bush. It is now that the people are preparing to use vehicles to go for the second time to look for their corpses and security agents are here. We even went to the police station here and DPO asked that we should look for N100,000 to give them to escort us to look for their corpses.
“How did they know? For me the security agencies are accomplices in the ongoing killings in our communities.”
Meanwhile, the Benue police command was yet to comment on the matter as of press time.
