No fewer than 32 Tiv villagers were killed at the weekend at different locations across the southern senatorial district of Nasarawa state by suspected AK47 welding Fulani Herdsmen.
The attacks which were said to have been carried out by the suspected herdsmen occurred on Tiv communities reportedly took place Awe, Keana, Obi and Doma Local Government Areas of the state, leaving 19 others with severe gun and matchet cut injuries.
As at the time of filing this report, over 10,000 Tiv villagers were said to have been trapped along the Agwatashi-Jangwa road axis in Obi Local Government Area shortly after the marauding herdsmen sacked over 200 villages including Uvirkaa, the hometown of a serving commissioner Governor in Al-Makura’s cabinet, Barr. Gabriel Akaaka.
About 15,000 fleeing Tiv villagers were stranded in streets of Lafia, the state capital apart from the over 100,000 of them who taking refuge in different Internally Displaced Persons IDPs, camps at Agwatashi, Aloshi, Awe, Adudu, Obi, Keana, Doma, Agyaragu, among other locations considered to be safe.
A visit to the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, DASH, Lafia where 8 victims are currently receiving treatment as a result of injuries sustained from the attacks, also revealed that 5 dead bodies were deposited at the hospital mortuary out of which 3 were later released by the Police for burial.
Confirming the development to newsmen in Lafia, President Tiv Youth Organization Nasarawa state chapter, Comrade Peter Ahemba said the entire Tiv villages in the southern part of the state had been sacked, noting that most of the affected villages were being occupied by the invaders.
“As I speak to you, 7 corpses of our people killed this morning by the Fulani terrorists in Wurji village of Keana LGA have just been recovered and brought to Keana town by the Police. Also last night, 5 of our people were killed in the coordinated attacks with 7 others still missing at Kertyo and Apurugh villages in Obi Local Government”
“Three days ago, we recorded 8 reads from similar attacks in Kadarko area, four from Aloshi axis, one person from Agberagba, all in Keana LGA. Another six persons were shot at Imon village and were rushed to Obi General Hospital as a result of which one of them later died. This is just few out of deaths we recorded within the last three days as a result of these senseless attacks”. He noted.
The Tiv youth leader, who alleged that the gun-wielding herdsmen were conveyed in trucks and brought into the state to carry out their inhuman act, averred that it was now clear that incessant attacks on the Tiv people were no longer protest against any enacted law but a calculated attempt to exterminate the Tiv community of the state.
He, therefore, restated his appeal to the Nasarawa state government to urgently stop the carnage, calling on the international community to intervene in order to save the state and country from the current bloodbath.
