By DANJUMA JOSEPH, Lafia –
A mass burial was held yesterday Saturday, for thirty eight (38) people including women and children killed by Fulani herdsmen in Takalafia and Gwanja rural communities of Karu Local Government Council of Nasarawa State
The Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State, Dr. Emmanuel Akabe, who led government delegation to the mass burial, condemned in strong terms the wanton killings and destruction of property worth millions of naira.
Dr. Akabe, who expressed shock over the killings, said government will investigate the causes of the attacks, bring the perpetrators to book and they will be punished.
He assured that the state government will provide relief materials to the displaced victims as he encouraged the communities to give credible information to the relevant authorities.
The Pastor in-charge of Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Rev. Daniel Danbeki and others, were gruesomely murdered by the assailants during the attack on Thursday night which lasted till early hours of Friday May 12.
Neighbouring communities such as Gwanja, Angwan Bege, Angwan Madaki and Gidan Allah, occupied predominantly by Gwandara, Mada and Yeskwa tribes, were also attacked by the killer herdsmen.
The Executive Chairman of Karu Local Governnent Area, Mr James Thomas, who visited the attacked communities before the mass burial, condemned the attack in totality.
Thomas, represented by his Deputy, Lawal Yakubu Karshi, appealed for calm and also vowed to arrest the perpetrators in order to face the full wrath of the law.
Our correspondent gathered that the attack was a result of the routine disagreement between a farmer and herdsman who grazed on the farm of a local and ate his newly planted crops (groundnut and maize).
“As the farmer was talking to the Fulani to send his herds out of his farm, a fierce disagreement ensued and the Fulani guy brought out his cutlass and started fighting the farmer; but the farmer overpowered the Fulani, snatched his cutlass and fought him back and the Fulani died instantly” he said.
It was gathered that the incident happened in Gwanja community, near Takalafiya, two weeks ago and the authority of Karu local government area intervened and the matter was settled amicably, only for the herdsmen to regroup and attacked Gwanja community, killing four instantly on Thursday, 11th May, 2023.
According to a source from the community, when the herdsmen discovered that some residents of Gwanja community fled to Takalafiya, they launched an attack on the community and killed people mercilessly on Friday, 12th May, 2023.
“In the early hours of Friday, around 4am the people of the community were pannicked when they discovered a very strange dog roaming the streets of Takalafiya, with huge charms round its neck, they mobilised and killed the dog”
“After they succeeded in killing the dog, as they clustered around it wondering where it came from, then the herdsmen started shooting guns sporadically around the community and that was how many residents were killed” he said.
As at the time of filling this report, it was gathered that eleven death bodies brought in from Takalafiya and other communities were deposited at the mortuary of Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Keffi.
Meanwhile, as the mass burial was ongoing in Takalafiya, the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), on Saturday, also held mass burial for its members who were killed recently by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen in Tattara Mada, Kokona LGA of Nasarawa State.
A total of seven members of the Church were gruesomely murdered in cold blood between Sunday April 16 and Monday April 17, 2023 when the yet to be arrested assailants invaded the community.
The deceased victims are Allahnana Danjuma, Renkle Moses, Iliya Tsebe, Nchekpu Chero, Friday Ahock, Bitrus Zaria and Philip Wanaso, who left behind wives, twenty children and many relations.
In attendance during the funeral programme were clergymen, family members, kinsmen and other mourners, notably a former Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku.
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