At least four people have been reportedly killed in separate attacks carried out by suspected armed herders in two Local Government Areas of Benue State.
The fatal incidents occurred in Tse-Nyibiam near Ngbam in Nyiev Council Ward of Guma LGA and in the Tin Mbatyula Council Ward of Katsina-Ala LGA.
In the Guma attack, a woman identified as Mlumun Igbawua and her son, Terkimbir Igbawua, lost their lives while working on their rice farm on Saturday. Terkimbir’s wife, who was with them at the time, was said to have survived the assault despite being severely tortured by the assailants.
According to reports, the attack took place at Tse-Nyibiam, the same farmland where the victims’ husband and father, Benjamin Iorhen Igbawua, was murdered earlier in May by armed invaders.
Jimin Geofrey, an aide to the immediate past governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, and an indigene of the area, confirmed the incident on Sunday.
He explained, “The body of the deceased’s husband, also killed by armed invaders, is still in the morgue at the time his wife and only son were killed on Saturday.”
Geofrey further said that the victims were on their farm when the attackers struck: “The woman, her son, and daughter-in-law were working on their rice farm at Tse-Nyibiam, near Ngban in Nyiev Cuncil ward when the armed herders invaded.”
The Chairman of Guma LGA, Maurice Orwough, was reported to have visited the crime scene, and later took the injured daughter-in-law to the hospital for medical attention.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident in Katsina-Ala LGA, two men—John Tsebo and Agber Solomon—were reportedly killed by suspected herders in the Anchaha community and Agu Centre, respectively.
A resident who spoke under condition of anonymity stated that the two victims were murdered on different days: July 31 and August 1, 2025.
The resident lamented the continuous violence in the area, saying, “We have lived at the mercy of the armed herders for six years. They kill us and destroy our crops at will. We are practically farming for their cows.”
Efforts to reach the spokesperson of the Benue State Police Command, SP Udeme Edet, were unsuccessful, as her phone was not answered at the time of filing this report.
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