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Land Dispute Claims 20 in Benue

Daily Trust (Abuja)
NEWS
March 23, 2004
Posted to the web March 23, 2004

By Hir Joseph
Makurdi
* 400 houses set ablaze
No fewer than 20 per-sons were killed and more than 400 houses razed between
Sunday evening and yesterday when a communal crisis broke out between the Tivs
and their neighbouring settlers, at Agboghol, an undeveloped settlement west of
Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
The crisis, according to eyewitnesses, began at about 6 pm on Sunday when more
than 50 armed youths operating under the auspices of Masev, Iharev, Nongov
Development Association (MINDA), were said to have risen from a meeting and
attacked a compound belonging to an elder of Kparev, the settlers from other
Tiv areas.
The situation, Daily Trust gathered, provoked youths from the opposing camp to
launch a counter attack, leading to the instant killing of many, just as more
than 400 houses were confirmed to have been razed as at press time.
Although the Benue State police command dispatched truckloads of mobile
policemen to the area, fighting continued even as at press time while the death
toll rose from the police official figure of six to over 20.
The police commissioner, Mr Johnson Uzuegbunam, who accompanied the state
governor, Mr George Akume on an on-the-spot assessment of the area, told
newsmen that so far, 22 suspects had been arrested as well as firearms and
machetes in connection with the violent clash.
Mr. Uzueghunam said that the cause of the clash was "a perennial land dispute.
It's been happening years and years past. It didn't start this year," added Mr
Uzuegbunam who disclosed further that the police would send more mobile
policemen to the area as the situation warranted with more houses still being
set ablaze.
Governor Akume who visited the trouble zone with the commissioner was shown
some corpses, and he described the incident as "shameful and unacceptable,"
directed his head of services, Mr Fidelis Anweh and Messrs Torbunde Boniface
and Titus Madugh who are members of MINDA to personally help the security
agencies in identifying those responsible for the act.
At the Federal Medical Centre in the metropolis, corpses of victims, mostly
women, were left littering the floor of the mortuary, while wounded persons
were brought to hospital in tens.
Settlers in Kparev section have been reported to have complained to the state
government over alleged threat to their lives by the original settlers.
Government however gave a deaf ear to their cries.

   

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