Herdsmen have killed 492 people in Benue in 2018- Gov Ortom

Ebun Francis |

Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom on Tuesday said that suspected herdsmen have killed 492 people in the state in 2018.

The governor made the disclosure at the burial of Felix Tyolaha and Joseph Gor, the two Catholic priests and 17 parishioners killed by gunmen during a raid on Saint Ignatius Parish, Mbalom, Benue State earlier in the year.

“These people were in the church and not on their farms; by this act, they gave moved their narrative to include other motives”, Ortom told mourners who included Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.

” We know our killers but they are not arrested or invited for interrogation; they have stated at several fora that they would reclaim their land.”

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The governor while calling on the federal government to apprehend the killers, said the anti-open grazing law passed by the state assembly and accented by him, was the best way in curbing incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers in the country.

In his remarks at the event, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo while expressing government’s commitment to end the attacks, stated that the killers will not go unpunished.

According to him, perpetrators of such dastardly and heinous crimes do not deserve to live among decent people.