Eight people have been feared killed and scores injured in clashes between soldiers and workers of Dangote Cement plant near Tse Kucha in Gboko Local Government Area on one hand, and Fulani herdsmen invasion of a farm near Makurdi.
The first incident occurred when the workers allegedly attempted to secure the release of their colleague who was detained by soldiers for urinating near a spot where men of the Nigerian Army were stationed.
The crisis caused a gridlock on the ever-busy Gboko-Makurdi Expressway as demonstrators blocked the road for five hours. Passengers and other road users on official assignment had to wait or follow Otukpo-Aliade Road to continue their journeys.
Although, the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Daniel Ezeala, said only one person was killed, eyewitnesses insisted that the death toll was six.
Nigerian Pilot gathered that trouble started when one of the workers in the company was sighted in one corner passing urine when a soldier accosted him.
It was learnt that attempts by the colleagues of the workers to rescue him failed. One of the soldiers allegedly shot their “captive” on the head who died instantly.
According to eyewitnesses, “his (the deceased) colleagues had come to rescue him, but the angry army officer shot the young man and killed him instantly. Five others were also reported killed by the soldiers as the crisis escalated.”
The witnesses said the action of the soldiers triggered a protest which lasted for five hours, forcing business and banking activities in the company to be halted.
Meanwhile, as the police in Makurdi said that it had increased patrol in the state to prevent further killing of Benue farmers, fresh hostility broke out at Welfare Quarters in the metropolis, claiming two lives.
Police sources said that a relation of one of the deceased had reported that his brother who went to farm and did not return was traced to the farm where they found his dead body with machete cuts.
Ezeala who confirmed the incident said policemen followed the family members to the farm and discovered another dead body which was burnt beyond recognition beside the corpse of the first victim.
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