Suspected Fulani herdsmen have again killed six persons near Ikpayongo, Gwer Local Government Area of Benue State. Those killed were teachers from Makurdi Local Government Education Authority (LGEA).
Our correspondent gathered that the teachers reportedly went to the area last Wednesday to inspect some farmland for rice cultivation under the umbrella of a cooperative society but were ambushed by the armed herdsmen who immediately opened fire on them.
Four of the teachers managed to escape with wounds while six others were not so lucky as they were said to have been killed and their bodies dismembered by the herdsmen.
The mangled remains of the deceased victims remained missing until they were recovered last Thursday with the assistance of some security operatives.
Sources from the area gave the names of some of the deceased victims as Mr. Stephen Tavaku, the Head Teacher of St. Mary’s Primary School, North Bank, Makurdi and Mr Christian Anankpa, a PhD student of ABU, Zaria, who was the Basic Science Teacher at St. Mary’s UBE Junior Secondary School, North Bank, Makurdi.
One of Tavaku’s close associates, Hon. Emerald Anyaogu, said he was with him a short while before he embarked on the journey.
“I never knew that my meeting with Tavaku in his office that day was going to be the last. I went to see him with some journalists about an issue in the school. He looked so excited that day and attended to them very well. He was such a nice man. Oh death!”
Meanwhile, efforts to get the police to confirm the incident failed as both the Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni and the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Moses Yamu, did not pick their calls.
