Bandits on revenge mission kill six in Benue

Gunmen-wielding bandits on Tuesday launched an attack on the Gugur community in the Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of Benue State and killed six people.

Sources in the local government told our correspondent on Wednesday that the bandits rode on motorcycles to attack the community between 9 pm and 10 pm

A villager, who did not want to be mentioned for fear of being killed, said the bandits rode on motorcycles to attack the community.

Confirming the incident on Wednesday, the lawmaker representing the constituency in the state assembly, Jonathan Agbidye, said six people were killed in the attack.

He said, “Those people in that particular community were against the hoodlums; luck ran out on them and they got hold of two of them in April and killed them.

“So the incident that happened yesterday (Tuesday night) is just a revenge mission. But the place is calm now. We went there with the police this morning.”

Also confirming the incident, the chairman of the local government, Shaku Justine, said that the bandits attacked the community between 9 pm and 10 pm on Tuesday.

Justine said, “It’s true that the incident happened yesterday between 9 pm and 10:00 pm; six people were killed in the community.”

The LGA chairman said he and the lawmaker representing Katsina-Ala in the state House of Assembly had visited the community for an on-the-spot assessment and claimed that normalcy was returning to the village.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the state command, Catherine Anene, said she had yet to receive the report.

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