A ward chairman of Labour Party in Ado Local Goverment Area of Benue State, Sunday Oche, has been reportedly killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
Thenewsbearer learnt from local sources that the incident occurred on Monday, September 2, when Oche was returning from the farm with five others.
He was said to have been shot to death by the herders.
According to the source, Oche, alongside five of his friends, were ambushed by suspected armed herders who shot at them.
A close friend of the deceased who spoke on condition of anonymity, told journalists on Tuesday, September 3, that Oche went to the farm in company with five others on motorcycles.
He explained that they went to assist a widow in her farm, and after they finished for the day and were on their way back home on bikes, the suspected armed herders barricaded the road and opened fire on them leading to the death of the party chairman.
The source said: “Those people who went to the farm with the chairman came home with serious Injures and disclosed that they were attacked by armed herders who equally took their two motorcycles.
“One of the people called Ogaba told me that Sunday my junior brother was unlucky because immediately the herders stopped them, he was the first person to get down from the other bike, and they shot at him. It immediately dawned on them that these people ambushed them.”
Confirming the incident, the State Chairman of Labour Party, Ibrahim Idoko, said that the ward party chairman was killed when he went to his farm to get cassava for his family.
He lamented that the latest incident was the second of its nature in the past one year whereby a ward party chairman would be killed by Fulani herdsmen.
Idoko said: “This is the second time we are having this type of ugly incident.
“We suffered similar situation in Apa LGA last year when one of our ward chairmen was killed by armed herders.
“It’s unfortunate it has happened to us again, where one of our ward chairmen has been killed.”
The state party chairman called on federal government to curb the excesses of the Fulani herdsmen in the state, lamenting that the deceased had only gone to his farm to harvest cassava when he was murdered.
When contacted, the Benue State Command Police Public Relations Officer, SP Catherine Anene, said that she had yet to receive such report.
