Ndigbo residing in Benue raise alarm, say they are targets of murders, kidnapping

Igbo residents particularly in Gboko, Benue State have raised an alarm over the danger posed to their lives following spates of targeted kidnappings and murder of Igbos by native gangs.

Members of Igbo community in Gboko claimed that their lives were no longer safe in the state as they were easy targets of native gangs suspected to be herdsmen and bandits.

In a statement issued on Monday, leader of the Igbo community in Gboko, Chief Nnolim Okafor said “there is no week an Igbo person is not kidnapped or murdered in Benue State.

He said that they had been subjected to paying millions of naira in ransoms and could no longer do businesses freely for fear of being kidnapped or murdered.

Nnolim also added that since January this year, over 50 Igbos had been kidnapped and some murdered in cold blood, by bandits and suspected herdsmen.

He said; “Igbos in Benue State are being systematically decimated and our businesses are gradually being ruined by these kidnappers and bandits.

“There is virtually no week that an Igbo person is not kidnapped. We have tried to engage the State Police Command to no avail. We are therefore crying out for the world to know the fate of Ndigbo in Benue State.

“We are now putting Ohanaeze Ndigbo on notice that we have become endangered in Benue State because what is happening to Igbos in Benue State is worse than what is happening to Ndigbo in the far north”, he stated.