No fewer than 15 parishes in Makurdi Catholic Diocese, Benue State have been shut down following the incessant attacks on communities within the diocese by suspected armed herders.

Chairman of Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association, Makurdi Diocese, Rev. Fr. Joseph Beba, disclosed this yesterday while addressing journalists at the Catholic Cathedral, Makurdi, on the effects of suspected herders’ attacks on the state and the church as a whole.

The priest who listed communities attacked in the past two weeks to include Tse Orbiam, Ahume, Jimba, Nagi-Camp, Aondoana, Yelewata, and Abegana, said that over 50 people, including women and children, were killed.

Fr Beba alleged that the spike in attacks and killings in the past two weeks in the state, particularly, Gwer West Local Government Area, was not unconnected to the Makurdi Catholic bishop’s testimony in the US and Europe on the systematic persecution of Christians in Benue and Nigeria.

The priest accused the military and other security operatives deployed to the state of not tackling the escalating insecurity, stressing that some of the attacks were carried out a few meters away from the military checkpoints.

He said: “More than 15 parishes have been shut down because the host communities have been sacked. Communities like Jiba, Mabalom Yelwata, and Aondona that were sacked by armed herders, the parishioners, and the priests are no longer there, all these are in Makurdi diocese.

“We have observed with dismay the low energy dis – played by our Nigerian army stationed at some of these affected areas. “We also regret to say that their inability to stop the attacks or go after the terrorists betrays professionalism, and this speaks of complicity.