Hoodlums Hijack Benue Youths’ Protest Over Herdsmen Killings

Many angry youths from Ugbokpo, the headquarters of Apa Local Government Area of Benue State staged a huge protest on Friday.

They stormed the Otukpo /Oweto/Abuja federal highway to protest the incessant killing of their people by suspected herders.

Suspected herders in the past four days have turned the Benue South senatorial district into a killing field.

So far, no fewer than 52 people have been killed by suspected herders in separate attacks on two communities in Otukpo and Apa LGAs between Monday and Wednesday.

On Monday, three people were killed at Igbobi in Apa LGA while 49 people were murdered on Tuesday and Wednesday by the marauding herders at neighbouring Umogidi community in Otukpo LGA.

The youths in their hundreds mounted roadblocks on the federal highway which disrupted vehicular movement for hours.

“Commuters coming from the southern part of the country and heading to Abuja and those coming from Abuja and heading to Otukpo and southern parts of the country were stranded for hours,” Adah Ocholi, a legal practitioner from the area, told our correspondent on the phone.

Chairman of Apa LGA, Patricia Amali said that the protest was peaceful until hoodlums later hijacked it.

Mrs Amali said there was no casualty at the time security operatives were invited to disperse them.

“Yes, there was a protest by some youths in Ugbokpo this morning because of the killings in our area, initially, the protest was peaceful but along the line, things changed and this made me to involve policemen and soldiers who later dispersed them,” the chairman explained.