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 Tiv communities, which were attacked included Awe, Keana, Obi and Doma Local Government Area 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 in Governor Al-Makura’s cabinet, Gabriel Akaaka.
It was gathered that about 15,000 fleeing Tiv villagers were stranded in streets of Lafia, the state capital, apart from the over 100,000 of them who are 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 eight victims are currently receiving treatment as a result of injuries sustained from the attacks, also revealed that five dead bodies were deposited at the hospital mortuary out of which three were later released by the Police for burial.
Confirming the development to newsmen in Lafia, the President, Tiv Youth Organization, Nasarawa State chapter, Comrade Peter Ahemba, said that 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, seven 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, five of our people were killed in the coordinated attacks with seven others still missing at Kertyo and Apurugh villages in Obi Local Government.
“Three days ago, we recorded eight dead people 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 said.
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 to save the state and country from the current bloodbath.