September 22, 2022

Suspected herdsmen have killed 14 people in a fresh attack on the Mchia community in Logo Local Government Area of Benue State.

Mchia is a settlement between Abeda and Anyiin, located on Ugba-Anyiin road, Logo local government area in the north-central state.

According to Channels Television report, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Colonel Paul Hamba (retired) confirmed this to journalists after a Security Council meeting in Makurdi, the state capital.

He said the attack occurred on Wednesday night while the herdsmen, fully armed, stormed the community around 9 pm.

Meanwhile, troops of Operation Whirl Stroke have thwarted an attack on the Ortese Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in the Guma Local Government Area of the state.

Commander of Operation Whirl Stroke, Major General Kevin Aligbe, disclosed this to Channels Television in an interview, saying the troops killed the herdsmen in the counter-offensive operation.

According to the Commander, a soldier who was involved in the operation slumped and died at the hospital.

“We got information about these people (terrorists) planning to attack Ortese, Nkohol and two other locations in Guma LGA on Tuesday night; and we quickly deployed that night and reinforced the places yesterday morning,” he said.

“My troops noticed where those guys were hibernating in the bush and went after them. Of course, they made contact with them. They saw them carrying their casualties and running into the bush. Coming back, one of our soldiers just slumped, he was not shot.

“He was rushed to the hospital where he was confirmed dead. We are still maintaining the trend in that axis and that is why you have not heard about any attack. We were still in Human when we heard about the Logo attack.

“The pattern of settlement of the people too is not helping us. But our troops are managing the situation in Logo. Some things had been happening around that area before now which made us conduct a weeklong operation there about two weeks ago. Even my Sector Commander had to move to the area.

“If you notice, these terrorists have killed between the to four people every three to four days. So, we needed to just clear that side. Before you know it, you will just hear that they have attacked and run away. The pattern of settlement is not also helping matters too. They go to isolated areas where they know that security is not near and they kill innocent farmers and other innocent people.”