Tension is reportedly mounting in Ayilamo town after suspected herdsmen shot and killed five persons in a night attack on Tuesday, October 18.
Ayilamo and Mahanga settlements are located in Tombo ward, Logo local government area in Benue state
The Nation learnt that the armed herdsmen launched the attacks on the farming communities at about 10.20 pm on Tuesday after people settled in their houses.
It was gathered that apart from the five persons who were killed at the spot, many others sustained various degrees of injuries and were referred to Benue State University Teaching Hospital Makurdi, from Ayilamo Health Center, which was overwhelmed with the number of casualties.
An eyewitness Tersoo Apera told The Nation on the phone that the killer herdsmen launched attacks on Mobile Barracks, Located on Anyiin- Ayilamo road, in Mahanga settlement, and killed two persons in a thatch house.
The victims were thereafter moved to Ayilamo, Headquarters of Tombo ward, and shot three persons dead while others escaped by whiskers but with bullet wounds.
On Wednesday, October 18, Ayilamo Comprehensive Health Center, where the bodies of those killed and the wounded were brought was overcrowded with sympathisers, who besieged the clinic to identify their loved ones.
The monarch of the area, Enoch Ikyumen, who visited the Health Centre, for first-hand information, and to see the condition of the survivors appealed to the state and Federal governments to order security agencies to protect his subjects.
Ikyumen, who was accompanied by other traditional rulers decried the sustained attacks and killing of his people and also asked other security agencies deployed to the area to protect the lives and property of his subjects.
He said their life wire of economy is farming, yet his people can’t access their farmland as herdsmen have occupied both houses and the land.
There was weeping, wailing, and tears from relations as the bodies of their loved ones were moved out of Ayilamo Health Centre for burial.
Ayilamo town, headquarters of Tombo ward, in Gaambetiev, is a farming and fishing community located near Anyiin, on the Abinse- Wukari federal highway in Benue state, and has been under sustained herdsmen attack since 2016.
Security adviser to the governor, Joe Har confirmed the attack and killings.
The names of those killed during the blistering attacks are
