Five individuals have reportedly been beheaded as reprisal killings resumed yesterday between the Tiv individuals of Benue State and the Ijiegu-Yache of the Yala Local (*5*) Area of Cross River State.
Chief Jacob Uswa, Tiv chief within the community, confirmed this on Wednesday, including that many others have been maimed.
According to him, the Yache boys beheaded theirs after they went to their farms to reap cassava.
“On Sunday 8th October 2023, they attacked and beheaded three of our boys in their farms where they had gone to harvest cassava for fufu.
“Two others were also killed in another farm. They displayed the heads before their Yache people. The Yache boys are all over the bushes to attack us,” he mentioned.
Augustine Adula, a youth chief in Ijiegu-Yache community, mentioned they needed to defend themselves when the Tiv militia unleashed assaults in opposition to them on their farms.
He alleged that the Tiv boys go to their farms to reap their farm yields and assault their ladies and farmers.
“We have suffered incessant attacks from those Tiv settlers. They invade our community wearing military camouflages and some times they would take us by surprise through the bushes to attack us.
“As a result, our boys have stopped their businesses and schools and have taken positions in the bushes to defend our land and people, so that they can block the Tivs when they come surreptitiously,” Adula mentioned.
According to Adula, the scenario has made life very tough for them, including that markets and colleges haven’t opened because of deep seated fears for his or her lives.
The reason for the hostilities is alleged to be refusal by the Tivs to proceed to pay royalties on the land they settled in. This led to killings and destruction of homes on each side final month.
But the Tivs have claimed that having settled within the community for over 100 years, they’re extra of Cross River than Benue State indigenes.
Both community leaders have expressed unhappiness that the numbers of safety males, together with troopers despatched to maintain the peace between them are only a few and are largely within the city, leaving the hinterlands very porous for the killings to persist.
Earlier, the 2 deputy governors of each states, Peter Odey and Sam Ode of Cross River and Benue States, respectively, visited the community and appealed for cessation of hostilities whereas they labored in direction of peace.
Police PRO, Irene Ugbo mentioned they’d not obtained a proper report in regards to the newest killings.
