Tension has gripped Anwule village in Ohimini Local Government Area of Benue State following a violent clash between villagers and suspected Fulani herders, which left three people dead and one missing after a reprisal.
According to security sources, the violence began after some suspected villagers killed a Fulani herder in late August. The incident reportedly followed a dispute over cattle grazing on farmlands in the community.
Sources said the crisis escalated when some locals attacked herds cattle and killed a young boy who was herding one of the herds. The boy’s body, they added, has yet to be found.
“While tension was still high between the villagers who felt that the herders strayed into their farms, and the herders who were still searching for the corpse of the missing shepherd, some villagers attacked another group of herders on Monday morning, killing several cattle and a herder,” one security source said.
By Tuesday, the herders were said to have regrouped and launched a counter-attack on the community. Before soldiers from the Army Forward Operating Base in Otukpo could intervene, three villagers, identified as Simon Nbach, Adoya Ejigai, and Ejeh Loko, were killed.
Troops later assisted in recovering the remains of the victims. Nbach, one of the deceased, was reportedly the pastor of the Flaming Fire Ministry in the village.
A security source described the killing of the pastor as “a mere coincidence and pure collateral damage,” noting that the attackers likely did not know his identity.
Following the incident, the Special Adviser on Security to Governor Hyacinth Alia, Hon. Joseph Har, and the Ohimini Local Government Chairman, Hon. Gabriel Adole, visited the community and appealed for calm.
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