At least 50 people lost their lives and many others injured after Fulani herdsmen attacked a Tiv community in Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom said Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters in Makurdi, the state capital, Ortom said the people were slaughtered, children killed, and several had their hands chopped off during Tuesday’s attack.
Ortom said nine livestock guards who were to ensure the full implementation of the anti-open grazing law were killed and their Hilux patrol van razed in the attack.
He said that the law was not targeted at any ethnic group and wondered why the herdsmen had taken it so personal to the point of unleashing terror on the people.
The governor blamed the central government of President Muhammadu Buhari for not protecting the people.
He said the federal government was alerted to the threat of the herdsmen who had vowed to resist the anti-grazing bill enacted by the state government.
Ortom added that no matter the intimidation and killings by the herdsmen, the anti-open grazing law would not be reversed or repealed.
He assured that the law must be implemented to the latter and anybody or group of persons that flouted it would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
