Herdsmen who recently invaded the Takalafia and Gwanja settlements in the Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State are said to have slaughtered no less than 38 locals there.
Rev. Daniel Danbeki, the local pastor-in-charge of the Evangelical Church Winning All, and 37 other people were brutally slain by the attackers during the attack, which lasted from 9 p.m. on Thursday to early on Friday.
But on Saturday, a mass funeral was held for the assault victims, among them women and children.
A government delegation was led by the state’s deputy governor, Emmanuel Akabe, to the mass burial, which was held in front of mourners and other community members.
Akabe denounced the senseless killings and damage of property worth millions of naira while speaking during the mass burial.
He expressed outrage over the deaths and gave the assurance that the state administration will look into the circumstances leading up to the attacks and prosecute those responsible, adding that the displaced residents of the region would receive relief supplies.
Prior to the mass burial, James Thomas, the Executive Chairman of the Karu LGA, visited the communities that had been assaulted. He strongly denounced the herdsmen’s attack.
Nevertheless, Thomas, who was represented by his deputy Lawal Karshi, pleaded for composure and promised to cooperate closely with the security services to apprehend the perpetrators of the act so that they may face the full force of the law.
A source told our correspondent that the dispute between the farmer and the herdsman, who brought his cows to graze on a groundnut and maize field, was the cause of the attack.
The farmer and the herdsman got into a violent fight when the cows entirely devoured the crops, which infuriated the farmer.
“As the farmer was talking to the herdsman to send his cows out of his (farmer’s) farm, a fierce disagreement ensued and the herdsman brought out his cutlass and started fighting the farmer; but the farmer overpowered him, snatched his cutlass and fought him back, and the herdsman died.
“This was what led to the killings of residents of this area by the herdsmen,” a source said.
As of the time of filing this report, the bodies of victims who managed to flee the onslaught in the Takalafia and Gwanja communities with bullet wounds were still being retrieved from the local bushes and transported to the mortuary of the Federal Medical Center in the state’s Keffi LGA.
As DSP Ramhan Nansel, the state’s police public relations officer, did not answer calls placed to his mobile lines, attempts to contact the Nasarawa State police headquarters to receive its comment to the incident were unsuccessful.
