CP Owoseni Says Recent Killings In Benue Is " Normal Crime"

The head of the Logo local government area, Richard Nyajo said four people, including two brothers, were killed on Tuesday and a fifth on Wednesday.

He blamed cattle herders who he said had “taken over” forests in the area and had been ambushing victims on the road. Five people were killed in the same area last week.

Benue state has been at the epicentre of a resurgence of violence in the long-running resource conflict between nomadic herders and farmers.

According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), armed ethnic Fulani herders have been blamed for killing nearly 1,000 civilians this year.

Security analysts have warned the conflict stoked by identity politics, religious and ethnic tensions threatens to eclipse Boko Haram violence.

Benue state police commissioner Fatai Owoseni warned against attributing the latest killings to the conflict and said it “could be normal crime”.

Regardless of the cause, the extent of the government’s response to the violence has come under scrutiny, with many pointing the finger at Buhari for not doing enough to stop it.

In Zamfara, cattle rustling and kidnapping for ransom have been increasing in recent years, with herding and farming communities targeted.

Cattle has been stolen and residents who resist them killed. That has led to villagers forming civilian militia groups as protection.

But they, too, have been accused of abuses and killings of suspected thieves, leading to tit-for-tat attacks.

Buhari has been accused of failing to act against Muslim Fulani herders as they are his kinsmen.

He said it was “too simplistic to see the conflict as ethnic or religious” and blamed the tensions on changing demographics that has increased pressure for land and water.

SOURCE: AFP