No fewer than 80 persons were feared killed in a renewed invasion of suspected armed Fulani herdsmen on Egba village in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State yesterday.
A villager, who escaped from the community, told newsmen that suspected Fulani, attacked the village at about 5am yesterday.
While the escaped villager said about 80 corpses had been found, the deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), John Ngbede, who hails from the area, confirmed that 60 persons were killed, but added that search was still ongoing to recover more corpses.
When contacted, Commissioner of Police in the state, Hycinth Dagala, who confirmed the incident, said his men, who had just arrived at the scene of the crisis, told him they had recovered 30 dead bodies and were still searching for more at the time of filing this report.
Dagala said he would rely more on the report of his men despite claims by locals that 80 dead bodies had been recovered.
About nine local government areas of Benue State came under attack of Fulani herdsmen last year with hundreds of persons killed while thousands were displaced.
But just while the farmers were returning to their villages to commence farming activities last year after a peace pact instituted by Governor Gabriel Suswam, two local government areas of Agatu and Logo had again come under attack by the herdsmen this year, a development which had posed concern to the Benue people.
