The Idoma Elite Club (IEC) has condemned the recent killings of about 46 persons, including children, women at Umogidi community of Entekpa-Adoka, in Oturkpo Local Government Council of Benue State by alleged herdsmen.
In the statement jointly signed by the group’s President and Public Relations Officer, Engr. Sunday Onoja Ugwu and Comrade Omaga Elachi Daniel respectively, the group described the action of the herdsmen as callous, barbaric and an act of man’s inhumanity against a fellow man.
The group wondered how long the Idoma people and indeed, Benue indigenes at large, will continue to be massacred in very cruel manners by these blood thirsty marauders. They likened the recent onslaught in Umogidi to the advancement of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Idoma by the herdsmen, who are bent on grabbing lands and taking over communities in Benue State at all cost.
“We are surprised that, just after the general elections when every part of the country is clamouring for national healing, reconciliation and reintegration, the herdsmen whose killing activities were relatively reduced prior to the 2023 general elections would visit the Umogidi community with so much horror and pains”, the statement reads.
The group commiserates with the government of Benue State, the Oturkpo Local Government Chairman, whose son was also killed and bereaved families over the mundane killing of their loved ones.
Stating further, the group called on President Muhammadu Buhari, the Benue State Government, the Idoma Traditional Council, Security Agencies and other critical stakeholders, to as a matter of urgency, expedite actions towards unmasking the attackers, bringing them to justice and ensuring that these senseless killings, are brought to an end.