Three Killed, Commuters Abducted as ‘Herdsmen’ Attack Benue Communities, Police Checkpoint

Tragedy struck communities in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State on Friday evening as suspected armed herdsmen launched coordinated attacks, resulting in three deaths and multiple abductions. The violence shattered the peace of the Akpamaju community and a police checkpoint along the Otukpo-Enugu Road, leaving residents in a state of fear.

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It was two different incidents. The first one happened at Akpamaju community in Otukpo Local Government Area on Friday evening. The victims, two males, were on the farm. One of them came from Gboko to work for the man who hired him, and both of them were killed. The attackers were armed herdsmen. Luckily, one boy escaped from the farm. The survivor was with us when we deposited the recovered bodies at the mortuary.

The first assault occurred at Akpamaju, where two men working on a farm were brutally killed. One of the victims had traveled from Gboko to operate a hired tractor. A survivor managed to escape the farm and provided a harrowing account of the attack. The deceased have been identified as Friday Omoha and Francis Liambee.

Less than an hour later, a second attack unfolded at the Ojano police checkpoint. Eyewitnesses reported that the assailants emerged from the bush, opening fire on the checkpoint. A young man assisting the police was killed instantly, while the officers on duty fled for safety. The attackers also fired upon a commercial bus, injuring some passengers and abducting others, though the exact number of those taken remains unconfirmed.

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The young man was shot dead instantly while the policemen on duty fled for their lives. The attackers also reportedly opened fire on a commercial bus belonging to a Mass Transit company marked TMT, injuring some passengers and abducting some others but we do not readily have the figure of those they took away.

Maxwell Ogiri, Chairman of Otukpo Local Government Area, confirmed the incidents, stating that security operatives responded swiftly. Initial reports indicate that two men were found dead on a farm after being killed while tilling the land with a tractor. The investigation into the full scope of the attacks and the recovery of those abducted is ongoing.

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Yesterday evening at about 5pm, we received a distress call from Ukpamaju village in Otukpo about a herdsmen attack. We rushed to the already deserted village with the police and trailed the attackers to a farm where we discovered that two men who were tilling the land with a tractor had been killed.