At least four people were reportedly killed in separate attacks on two Local Government Areas of Benue State by suspected armed herders.
According to sources, the occurrences occurred at Tse-Nyibiam, near Ngbam in Nyiev Council Ward, and Mbatyula Council Ward in Guma and Katsina-Ala LGAs, respectively.
A mother and her child died in an attack in Tse-Nyibiam, near Ngbam in Nyiev Council Ward, Guma LGA.
Mlumun Igbawua, her son Terkimbir Igbawua, and Terkimbir’s wife were working on a rice farm on Saturday when they were attacked by suspected armed herdsmen.
The woman and her son were reportedly killed during the attack, but the widow’s daughter-in-law was said to have survived after being subjected to terrible torture by the attackers.
Jimin Geofrey, an adviser to Samuel Ortom, the state’s immediate past governor, who is from the LGA, verified this to journalists on Sunday.
According to the former aide, the woman, her son, and daughter-in-law were working on their rice farm in Tse-Nyibiam, near Ngban in Nyiev Council Ward, when the armed herders attacked.
Geoffrey further stated that the killing of the woman and her son happened on the same farmland where the victims’ husband and father, Benjamin Iorhen Igbawua, was murdered in May.
He said, “The body of the deceased’s husband, also killed by armed invaders, was still in the mortuary at the time his wife and only son were killed on Saturday.”
Meanwhile, Maurice Orwough, Chairman of Guma LGA, was claimed to have visited the scene where the mother and boy were killed before transporting the deceased’s wife, who had been tormented by the assailants, to the hospital for treatment.
In a similar occurrence, two persons, John Tsebo and Agber Solomon, were reportedly killed by suspected armed herders in the Anchaha village and Agu Centre in Katsina-Ala LGA’s Tin Mbatyula Council Ward.
A resident of the region who did not want to be identified on Sunday stated that the two were supposedly slain separately on July 31 and August 1, 2025.
He said, “We have lived at the mercy of the armed herders for six years. They kill us and destroy our crops at will. We are practically farming for their cows.
Efforts to get the reaction of the spokesperson for the Benue State Police Command, Udeme Edet, were not successful at the time of filing this report.
