From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi
At least three persons have been confirmed dead, several others injured, and an unspecified number of passengers abducted following separate coordinated attacks by suspected armed herdsmen in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State on Friday evening.
The dual attacks, which occurred within hours of each other, targeted local farmers in the Ukpamaju community and a police checkpoint at Ojano along the busy Otukpo-Enugu highway, plunging the area into severe panic.
According to local sources and council authorities, the first incident occurred around 5:00 PM at Ukpamaju, where a gang of about 15 heavily armed men wielding AK-47 rifles invaded farmland.
Two farmers, identified as Friday Omoha from Ogbadibo LGA and Francis Liambee from Guma LGA — a tractor operator hired from Gboko — were gunned down while tilling the land.
A young boy who was also on the farm narrowly escaped the onslaught to alert the community.
Confirming the incident, the Chairman of Otukpo Local Government Council, Hon. Maxwell Ogiri, stated that security operatives responded to a distress call but met a deserted village.
“We rushed to the already deserted village with the police and trailed the attackers to a farm, where we discovered that two men who were tilling the land with a tractor had been killed,” Ogiri said, adding that the bodies had since been deposited at the University of Health Sciences Teaching Hospital mortuary in Otukpo.
Barely hours after the farm killings, the same gang is believed to have moved to Ojano along the Otukpo-Enugu Road, where they ambushed a police checkpoint.
Eyewitnesses reported that the gunmen emerged from the nearby bushes and opened fire on the security post.
A young civilian assistant, who routinely helped the police officers manage the road barricades, was shot dead on the spot, forcing the personnel on duty to flee for their lives.
The rampaging gunmen subsequently opened fire on a commercial bus belonging to TMT Motors, injuring several passengers and abducting others into the forest.
The Council Chairman, Hon. Ogiri, disclosed that a joint reinforcement team, including personnel from the military’s Operation Whirl Stroke, moved swiftly to the highway after receiving a second distress call around 10:00 PM.
“We mobilised with Operation Whirl Stroke personnel to the scene and engaged the attackers in a gun duel.
“They attacked a TMT mass transit vehicle and some other vehicles. We rescued three passengers and took them to the hospital, but unfortunately, one of them died,” the chairman stated.
Ogiri noted that preliminary security assessments suggest both operations were carried out by the same 15-man syndicate.
The bullet-riddled commercial bus has been recovered and towed to the Otukpo Police Station.
Efforts to get an official statement from the Benue State Police Command were unsuccessful, as the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Udeme Edet, could not be reached for comment at the time of filing this report.
