{"id":110833,"date":"2024-03-07T00:02:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T23:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=110833"},"modified":"2024-03-07T00:02:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T23:02:02","slug":"family-of-seven-33-others-shot-dead-in-benue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/other-news\/family-of-seven-33-others-shot-dead-in-benue\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of seven, 33 others shot dead in Benue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
More than 40 persons, including a family of seven, were feared killed in clashes between militia gangs in Gbagir community in Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State on Tuesday.<\/div>\n
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\nA highly-reliable military source said on Wednesday in Makurdi that security operatives had been deployed in the area to restore normalcy.<\/p>\n

He said locals in the area would need to furnish the operatives with credible information to succeed in the operation, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was militia men that were killing themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne or two persons might have been caught in the crossfire, but the majority of the people that were killed were members of militia gangs in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe villagers know those carrying out this dastardly act, but are shielding them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw several corpses. The attack was not carried out by suspected armed herdsmen. It was a clash between two local militia groups,\u2019\u2019 the source said.<\/p>\n

Police in Benue State also confirmed the clash and declared that only eight corpses had so far been recovered from the scene.<\/p>\n

Police spokesman, SP Sewuese Anene, that additional operatives had been deployed in the area to restore peace and order.<\/p>\n

Anene denied knowledge of any on-going mass burial taking place in the community as was being rumoured.<\/p>\n

An independent source in the area corroborated the position of the military source that most of the dead persons were members of the rival militia gangs.<\/p>\n

He said about 12 farmers were caught in the crossfire, while many were still missing.<\/p>\n

A traditional ruler in the area, who requested anonymity, said the bloody fight began on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

He said a militia leader in Ukum Local Government Area of Benue went to Chinkai community in Wukari Local Government Area in neighbouring Taraba at the weekend and kidnapped a tribal militia leader.<\/p>\n

He also kidnapped family members of the Chinkai militia leader, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter kidnapping them, he demanded for N100 million ransom, but was given N5 million. After collecting the money, he killed his hostages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe murder of the hostages sparked outrage among members of the victims\u2019 gang members in Taraba.<\/p>\n

\u201cA different militia gang leader in Ukum, joined forces with the avenging militia gang from Taraba to help to eliminate the Ukum gang leader who abducted and killed his Chinkai community victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe essence was to enable him (the collaborator), to become the head of militia gang in Ukum,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

The traditional ruler said the combined forces of two different tribal militia gangs started moving into Gbagir bushes in their hundreds from Sunday to sack the gang that killed the Taraba militia gang leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Tuesday morning, the bloody fight ensued.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what we have heard, more than 45 persons, mainly bandits have been killed. We also have a record of about 12 farmers who were caught in the crossfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 30 others were injured while some are still missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly caught in the crossfire was a family of seven,\u2019\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n

He said also that the armed men had also spread into bushes in the surrounding areas, but could not move into residential areas because of the timely intervention of troops of \u201cOperation Whirl Stroke\u2019\u2019 (OPWS).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people noticed the movement of the armed tribal militia groups into Benue communities, the chiefs informed political leaders who briefed Governor Hyacinth Alia who equally alerted the military for swift action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the timely response of the governor and the intervention of the OPWS that saved the people of Ukum Local Government Area,\u2019\u2019 he stressed.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 40 persons, including a family of seven, were feared killed in clashes between militia gangs in Gbagir community in Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State on Tuesday.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\nFamily of seven, 33 others shot dead in Benue - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/other-news\/family-of-seven-33-others-shot-dead-in-benue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Family of seven, 33 others shot dead in Benue - 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