Suspected herdsmen
have reportedly killed a Zaki Ukovur, a monarch in Karmen village, Ibi
local government area of Taraba state.
According
to The Nation, 28 other people were killed in the attacks which took place
between Tuesday and Wednesday.
At
least nine people were said to have been killed in separate attacks in Gishiri,
Dooshima and Danwaza villages of the state, while 11 people, including women
and children, were killed in Wukari and six others in Gassol.
The
Taraba State Broadcasting Service (TSBS) had reported that two people were
killed when gunmen attacked Donnada village in Lau local government area where
a mass burial of more than 68 persons took place on Tuesday.
Bala
Bako, caretaker chairman of Ibi local government, who confirmed the attacks and
killings via telephone, said the killers operate on the same network as the
gunmen who attacked Logo and Guma local government areas of Benue state earlier
in the month.
At
least 73 people were killed in the attacks.
Bako
said in Ibi, the gunmen reportedly struck when the people of the area had
gathered for a security meeting.
He
explained that worried by incessant attacks by the herdsmen, the people had
converged to seek a solution, but the meeting had hardly begun when some
“Fulani marauders” emerged from the bush.
Bako
said: “We are having security challenges in Ibi Council, and we have been
making efforts to ensure that all the ethnic groups in our domain accommodate
one another and live together peacefully.
“The
chief (traditional ruler) of Ibi was able to set up a committee that was
sitting to find a lasting solution to the problem. It was in one of the
meetings that the Fulani gunmen attacked and killed the monarch.
“The
people had gathered and were waiting for us for the security meeting when
suddenly an armed Fulani man emerged and started shooting. The local chief was
killed during the attack.”
Despite
wielding guns, witnesses said, the attackers used sticks to hack the monarch to
death in a gruesome manner.
“It
was dreadful,” one resident said.
The
council chairman said he mobilised security men who evacuated the corpse.
Like
Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue, Bako said the killer herdsmen invaded Taraba
from Nasarawa state.
“We
share border with Benue and Nasarawa states, and most times, these Fulanis
cross over from Nasarawa to attack and go back,” he said.
“We
are trying to close all the routes they have been using to attack us. The
killings in Dooshima and Gishiri, near Sarkin Kudu, were also done by the group
which attacked Benue. On their way back to Nasarawa, they have been killing
anyone they meet on the way.”
Confirming
the attacks in a telephone conversation with the newspaper, Darius Ishaku,
Taraba governor, said some communities were being attacked by herdsmen in the
state even as he spoke.
“How
can you be killing people because of grasses or cows?” he asked.
“Yesterday,
they attacked and killed innocent people in Taraba without provocation. Today,
an hour ago, they attacked some communities and killed people. Is that how
people should continue to be killed?
“The
killings by Fulani herdsmen in some parts of the country is more than the feud
between farmers and cattle pastoralists.
“It
is a drive for territorial control, and we need to protect the people. We must
protect the country.”
Earlier
in the week, herdsmen killed a farmer in Ogun state and a pregnant woman in
Ekiti.
The
Ekiti incident was a reprisal attack for the murder of a herdsman.
- The Cable
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