At least 18 farmers are believed to have been hacked to death by unknown assailants at Dan-anacha in Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba in the early hours of Sunday. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the killings are one of the series of bloody attacks in the state.

Most of the farmers were killed on their farms.

The State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr David Misal, who confirmed the incident, said that the police would soon release the casualty figure.

“Actually, I cannot lie to you there are casualties, but we will release the figures later after we might have finish combing the area.

“It was an undercover attack by some unidentified people in the area,” Misal said.

He said the police would soon conduct a thorough search for the perpetrators of the wicked act through intelligence gathering.

The acting Chairman of Concerned Taraba Tiv Youth Frontier, Mr Dooior Torkula, said a total of 18 persons were killed in separate attacks. Torkula said the frontier recovered 12 corpses in Dan-Anacha shortly after the attacks.

According to him, four bodies were recovered from the Borno- Kruku road on the outskirts of Dan-Anacha, while two other corpses were recovered in their farms.

He alleged that the attackers broke into most of the victims’ houses while they slept and murdered them. He further said that 18 other persons were left badly injured.

The acting chairman said the bodies were recovered at about 3am on Sunday. Torkula said calm had returned to the area following the arrival of armed mobile policemen. The policemen are currently patrolling the area to ensure law and order.