Samson Uwa
Gunmen believed to be fulani herdsmen has ambushed and killed three Bagana farmers on Abejukolo -Bagana road in Omala Local Government Area of kogi state .
It was gathered that those who lost their lives in the deadly ambush were in their 20s, and includes, Samson Ajene, Adah Audu and Monday Ocho while the injured ,a son of a popular timber dealer Haruna Ajene is on the danger list at the General Hospital Abejukolo, the headquarters of Omalla local government.
According to the report , the victims , Samson Ajene and Monday Ocho met their untimely death while on duty on their farms at Ojuwo Igboone, and Adah Audu was short and killed by the marauding fulani herdsmen, as he was conveying cassava tubers in his keke machines from the farm.
The people from the ravaged communities lamented that the offence which the people of Bagana are suffering from did not emanate from them, stressing that the people are living in perpetual fears of attack daily.
The community leaders noted that unless the security agencies adopt proactive measures to nip these criminals in the buds, its resultant reprisals attack against the innocent natives may exterminate them from their ancestral homes.
According to the Special Adviser to the Sole Administrator of Omala LGA on Security Matters, Mr. Steve Shaibu the victims were returning from the farms before they were ambushed and killed.
He said before the attack, the villagers around Obakume villages had allegedly made formal reports of the mass movement of some Agatu militias from Benue state to the forest with sporadic gunshots, stressing that they might have killed scores of cows belonging to fulani herdsmen living in those areas.
The Special Adviser stressed further that similar incident had occurred at Iyade town near Abejukolo , the headquarters of the council in which the Agatu militias unleashed terror on the herder which reprisals by the fulanis led to many deaths of the natives and burning of houses .
He lamented at the recent killings of these young men who eke a living through farming, calling on the authority to intensify effort at unravelling the perpetrators.
Explaining, Shaibu said that his office has written severally on the nefarious activities of criminal elements from Nassarawa and Benue states who used the River Niger to launch attack on fulani herders whose reprisals have always leave the locals with tales of woes.
Also, Hon. Aliyu Akuh , Member Representing Omala Local Government Area in the state House of Assembly condemned the killing and maimings of the locals by unknown gunmen, calling on the state government and the Security Agencies to deploy their intelligence to arrest the ugly situation.
He bemoaned the unwarranted crises between Agatu in Benue State and the fulani which erupted in 2013 had claimed more than 200 lives while properties woth million of naira have been destroyed.
The lawmaker said that the government should set up committee of enquiry to permanently resolve the impasse to prevent further preventable clashes between the fulanis and Agatus with its spill over devastation on the people of Omala LGA.
The kogi state police command Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) William Aya confirmed the incident, saying both the mobile police and conventional police have been drafted to the area to keep law and order .
DSP Aya however said that he was yet to get the actual number of deaths, pointing out that the situation has been brought under control by the men of the command.
