Some villages in the Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State have become volatile following the killing of two farmers by marauders identified as Fulani herders between Friday and Monday.

On Friday, Timeh Evi, 49, was reportedly killed while working on his irrigation farm in Nzhwerenvi village. Eyewitnesses claim they only saw traces of his blood in the farm, but did not find his corpse.

Again, at about 8 am on Monday, Stephen Monday and his wife, Ejoma, were waylaid on their way to the farm in Ancha. While Stephen was killed, the wife survived with a gunshot injury to the mouth.

FIJ gathered from different sources that the ambushes were to prepare for a large-scale attack. 

“The situation around the axis is tense as the marauders have been spotted gathering in an attempt to unleash another terror,” a source told FIJ after Monday attack.

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Ancha is one of the villages in Miango District where the Nigerian Army erected a military flag to curtail grazing into the farms owned by members of the indigenous Irigwe ethnic group.

These two attacks in Nzhwerenvi and Ancha are the third bout of attacks within the district. 

At about 8 pm on December 31, 2021, five vigilantes from Jebbu Miango were returning home from their duty post in order to prepare for a crossover service in church when they were ambushed by Fulani and Hausa marauders who killed one of them.

A community resident said the attack on the vigilantes did not get the attention of Simon Lalong, the state governor, but he reacted to a subsequent attack on the Fulani/Hausa community a few days later.

Yakubu James, the divisional police officer in Bassa, could not be reached as his line was not available. At press time, he was yet to respond to FIJ’s text message.