Ortom said soldiers attached to Operation Whirl Stroke recovered the bodies and deposited the corpses at Gbajimba General Hospital
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
There is no end in sight to the ongoing carnage in Benue State as gunmen on Saturday murdered three kinsmen of Governor Samuel Ortom.
Ortom blamed suspected Fulani herdsmen for the killings.
Killings in the Benue trough has been a recurring decimal with Ortom usually blaming Fulani herders for the mayhem.
Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Nathaniel Ikyur, in a statement said the victims were killed on Saturday at about 5 pm when the gunmen laid ambush and blocked the Lordye-Gbajimba Road.
The statement reads, “At about 5:00 pm Saturday, February 19, 2022, suspected Fulani gunmen killed two males and a female while returning from a burial along Iordye-Gbajimba Road in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.
“The victims were riding on a motorcycle when they were ambushed and shot dead by the killer herdsmen. The two died on the spot from gunshot wounds while the other was brutally matcheted to death.”
“Soldiers attached to Operation Whirl Stroke recovered the bodies and deposited the corpses at Gbajimba General Hospital.
READ ALSO: Two persons die as truck crashes into police checkpoint in Anambra
“Sadly, this has been the plight of Benue indigenes in the hands of Fulani herdsmen who have invaded the state in a bid to take over our ancestral lands,” the statement by spokesperson of Governor Ortom further read.
The latest incident comes a few days after five persons including a father and his son, were killed by gunmen in an attack on Tse Udeghe community, Mbakpa Council Ward and Ahumen community in Gwer West Local Government Area of the state.
Insecurity has become the greatest national challenge at the moment.
Governor Ortom’s lamentations have usually fallen on seeming deaf ears with no succour from the federal authorities.