No fewer than 12 residents of Tattara Mada, Migini and Angwan Barau communities in the Kokona Local Government Area of Nasarawa State have been reportedly killed by herdsmen.
Houses and property worth millions of naira belonging to the residents were also razed during the attack, which happened from Sunday to Thursday.
Our correspondent gathered that the crisis started when a herdsman allegedly led his cattle to destroy a sugarcane plantation and was resisted by its owner, which led to a fight.
The herdsman later took the cattle back to his settlement, fell ill and died while taking treatment from his parents.
This was said to have angered the herdsmen, who began to attack the communities, leading to the death of 12 people.
A source, while lamenting the incident, said surviving residents of the communities were seeking refuge in other parts of the state for fear of being killed by the bandits.
“As I speak to you, 11 corpses are in the mortuary at the General Hospital, Garaku. One was also discovered today, and some are nowhere to be found. This is because when they invaded our village and started shooting sporadically, many people ran helter-skelter with bullet wounds,” he added.
The Chairman of Kokona LGA, Awalu Adamu, confirmed the incident but declined comment on the number of casualties.
On his part, the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ramhan Nansel, said officers of the command had been deployed in the communities to restore normalcy and arrest those involved in the crisis.
“According to the report we got from the DPO in the area, a Fulani herdsman and two farmers were killed in the crisis. Our people have evacuated the corpses and as I talk to you, our men are stationed permanently in the area to avoid the breakdown of law and order,” he added.
