Armed men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen militia attacked members of the Benue State Livestock Guards and Agro Rangers of the Nigeria Security and civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, leaving one person dead and one other severely injured, IgbereTV reports.
Confirming the incident to newsmen in Markurdi on Saturday, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, retired Colonel Paul Hemah, said the Livestock Guards and NSCSC personnel were ambushed on their way back from patrol in Mbalagh Council Ward of Makurdi Local Government Area on Friday, January 15.
Hemah revealed that the herder’s militia laid siege on both sides of the road and opened fire on their targets, killing a personnel of the Livestock Guards on the spot while a member of the Agro Rangers was badly injured.
He stated that men of the Operation Whirl Stroke were immediately contacted and swiftly rushed to the scene of the incident, even as they could not find the assailants who retreated on motorbikes.
He said that suspected herdsmen militia had targeted personnel of the Livestock Guards and Agro Rangers in recent times in the State ostensibly to intimidate and deter them from performing their duties. Hemah said the attackers came in a guerrilla manner and retreat immediately after accomplishing their mission, making it difficult to trail and arrest them.
Linus Zaki who is the Benue State Commander of the Livestock Guards said his men were attacked near Zongo on their way back from routine patrol in Mbalagh around 6pm, adding however that they would not be deterred nor pushed into surrendering the land to the marauders.
