There was confusion in the Agboughul area of Makurdi, Benue State when residents discovered the corpses of a lawyer, Barrister Udam, and his wife, Nkechi. Suspected Fulani herdsmen brutally murdered them in their apartment.
Udam, who was a Managing Partner at Orkar, Udam and Associates (Attorneys and Legal Consultants), and his wife were reportedly slaughtered on Tuesday night.
Their corpses had cuts on the head and necks.
Apart from the two, a third person identified as Elder Nyikyor Mazugu was also murdered while three people are being treated for severe injuries sustained during the attack.
The state governor, Samuel Ortom, who confirmed the incident on Wednesday, said the state under his watch would not succumb to attacks by “terrorists whether they are jihadists or militia herders whose sole target is the occupation of the state and destruction of lives and property.”
The governor made this position known while addressing journalists when he visited the scene of herders’ attack on Agboughul community.
He stated that the pattern of the attack and killings barely four days after a similar incident at Tse-Angbande was unfortunate and bore the handwriting of mindless jihadists who had set out to overrun the state.
The governor noted that the series of attacks was a grand plan to whittle down operations of Livestock Guards and Agro Rangers who are doing very well in containing attacks on communities and enforcing the ranching law of the state.
Ortom lamented that developed climes globally with a higher number of cattle compared to Nigeria have no cases of conflicts between herders and farmers due to ranching which is also being practised in Benue, stressing that he would continue to speak against impunity in the country.
Udam had in 2015 contested for the Makurdi Local Government Chairmanship seat on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
