Some gunmen have beheaded a middle-aged man, Daddy Noah after abducting him from his village, Patanyi, a river rine village in Bagana ward of Omala Local Government Area of Kogi state.
It was gathered that the gunmen beheaded him and threw the corpse into River Benue in Kogi state.
The incident was said to have occurred when Noah, in the company of his friends went on a hunting expedition, then the gunmen stormed the forest and abducted him while his other friends escaped.
The deceased according to locals was one of the people defending his clan, Ihiankpe against the Otutubatu clan, who have been up in arms against each other over the control of the Bagana community in Omala LGA.
It was gathered that the crises which started off as Fulani herders and Agatu in Benue state snowballed into ethnic and clan cleansing which started over a decade ago.
According to another eyewitness account, Noah was killed on a fateful day, when the suspected bandits numbering over twenty stormed Patanyi town shooting sporadically, as the villagers ran helter-skelter to save their lives and in the process, Noah was abducted and taken to an unknown destination.
Recounting the ordeal to Tribune Online, a man who did not want his name in print, said, “on Wednesday afternoon when the villagers were returning from farms, they were taken by surprise with a staccato of gunshots from different directions, as people scampered to safety, however, Daddy Noah was unlucky as he was cut up by the militia.
“The militia came through, Bagana and Ogba route before arriving at Patanyi to carry out the dastard act. The villagers then mobilised themselves into a search party who later discovered the mutilated corpse floating at the bank of River Benue at Bagana, the epicentre of the lingering communal war that has taken the lives of tens of hundreds of lives and burned down properties.
“It was a gory sight to behold, as his head was chopped off, his hands and legs were equally cut to smithereens. Lamentably, the deceased had lost his father, Noah Akoja, his elder brother, and an uncle, Alih to the crisis, even as their family houses in Bagana were burnt to rubble.
“As I’m talking to you, no member of the Ihiankpe clan is having his or her house standing in Bagana. They have all been burnt down by the suspected militias allegedly helping the Otututubatu clan to prosecute the war.
“This latest onslaught against our clan is coming on the heels of the final phase of the fact-finding engagement with the communities, by the peace committee set up by His Royal Majesty Ata’Igala Matthew Opaluwa Oguche-Akpa. This killing has taken us back in the peace-building process” He recounted the ordeal amid wailing.”
Recall that Bagana, a commercial nerve centre of Omala LGA and 15km north of Abejukolo, headquarters of the council, has been engrossed in carnage since 2013, and all efforts by the state government to restore normalcy proved abortive.
The paramount ruler of Omala LGA, HRH Boniface Musa, the Ojogba of Ife while contacted condemned the killing, saying it was one too many for the people of the communities.
He called on the state, Federal Governments and security agencies to come to his aid to permanently end the crisis.
The Royal father while lamenting the socio-economic hardship the crisis has posed on Bagana communities, said it has become unbearable for the entire local Government Area to bear the burden of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who had fled from their homes.
At the time of filling this report, the Police Public Relations Officer (PRO) SP William Aya could not pick up his calls and several text messages sent to him were not returned, but the in command said he has reported the matter to the Divisional police officer of the LG who promised to revert as soon as he was in touch with the DPO.
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