Hundreds of women and youths on Friday mounted a roadblock on the highway leading from Makurdi to Lafia and Abuja protesting the killing of five people in two villages of Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.
The protest had caused untold hardship for travelers moving in and out of Makurdi, the Benue State capital.Some locals said assailants who besieged the rural communities of Ngban had killed three people on Thursday night and another two at Nyian on Friday morning.
It was reported that Ngban, a village hosting the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), came under similar attack earlier this year when over 30 people including some IDPs were hacked to the death by the attackers.
The Guma LGA Security Adviser Christopher Waku, who confirmed the incident and number of casualties to newsmen in Makurdi said Governor Hyacinth Alia is set to visit the scene of the protest.
“Our women have trooped out to the Makurdi-Abuja federal highway since 5am today (Friday) as you can hear from background of the telephone conversation. Right now, they are singing emotional songs and no vehicle coming from either Abuja or Makurdi can pass through to either side.
“The women are protesting the murder of five people killed on (Thursday) night and this morning (Friday).
“Three people were killed at Ngban yesterday night and two people killed at Nyian this morning. The women have said that they are not going to leave the road until the governor comes and talk to them. I’m right now on the road where the women are protesting waiting for Governor Hyacinth Alia,” he said.
Veteran journalist and recipient of A.B.C Yola, Reporter of the Year Award (1997), Hassan Umar Shallpella, works with WAP as a Regional Correspondence. He was trained at Institute of Mass Communication and Technology Jos and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Training School Lagos.He was a News desk Editor and a Correspondent at the Punch newspaper and till 2019, was the Deputy Editor ofThe Scope newspaper.
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