…We need security presence, govt has abandoned us – residents tell FG
There appear to be no end in sight in the massacre of farmers in Benue State, as suspected armed Fulani terrorists again launched an attack on Anwase in Kwande Local Government Area killing a farmer and displacing many others.
The terrorists were reported to have also set the corpse of the farmer ablaze which burnt beyond recognition.
Anwase is the community where the insurgents invaded on Christmas Day last year and killed over 20 innocent people and rendered scores of people homeless.
Those killed were given mass burial by the state government.
A resident of the area, Mr. Lawrence Akerigba who confirmed the incident to New Telegraph said, the latest incident occured last Friday at about 1 pm.
According to Akerigba, the deceased, one Mr. Lanhemba Agbile alongside two other farmers “Had crossed over the Akpen Aberaka mountain to Ityuluv in Môôn Valley on Friday 17/1/2025 at about 1pm, when they were attacked by herder terrorists and Mr. Lanhemba Agbile was killed in the process and his corpse set ablaze”.
The President of Nyiev-Ya Development Association, Dr. Joseph H. Akanyi, who also confirmed the bloody attack, disclosed that two of the farmers survived the bloody attack, adding that the herders came with many cattle and were grazing openly on farmlands of farmers unchallenged.
The people lamented complete absence of security presence in the now deserted communities siting what they termed ‘the lackadaisical attitude of the state government’ and pleaded with the Federal Government to urgently come to their aide to save their lives as the state’s anti open grazing law ‘has since lost its relevance and is as good as dead in the state’.
They regretted that Anwase community which is widely noted for high production of rice and bambara has been deserted due to the incessant attacks and killing of the farmers over twelve years ago.
According to them, troops that were deployed to the area during the mass burial of the victims killed on December 25, have since left living the villages under the attack by the gunmen.
