At least 10 villages in Mbaiiikyor council ward of Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State on Sunday night came under severe attack by gunmen.
Our correspondent gathered that the attackers invaded the area at about 7:00pm, shooting sporadically and burning down houses.
The Caretaker Chairman of the council, Tertsua Yarkarn, said that causalities could not be immediately ascertained but that many people have been displaced.
Yarkarn, who had earlier raised alarm of planned attack on Jato Aka, further told Daily Trust by telephone that the current destruction carried out in his area by the attackers was massive.
He added in a text message, “Mbaiikyor council ward, over ten villages overrun by herdsmen. There is need for urgent security intervention and relief material.”
But when contacted, the Force Commander of Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS), Major General Adeyemi Yekini, dismissed the claim of an attack in the area, stressing however that there are two different groups of security operatives including his men on ground in the axis.
Yekini said, “These are all rumours. There are troops on ground and the story is false,” adding that his troops have consistently been following the rumoured planned attack in the area in the past three days including the 73 Nigerian Army of Taraba State just as he blamed any panic in the affected place on an alleged recent rustling of cows belonging to some herders.
However, the council chairman insisted that an attack on his people was currently going on even as he emphasised that a few weeks ago, herders attacked Tyungu Timbee community as well and that if it were a reprisal, it should have been Kwande people retaliating and not the herders wanting to take a pound of flesh”.
