Morning Star News | April 14, 2020
Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria decapitated two Christians in Benue state on Monday (April 13), and another group of herdsmen in Plateau state on Saturday (April 11) shot a Christian farmer dead, sources said.
In Benue state, residents of Ologba village, Agatu County told Morning Star News that herdsmen ambushed two members of a Catholic church in the village at about 8 a.m. on Monday.
“Oche Alaade and his friend who had visited the village were traveling out of the village on their way back to Obagaji town where they reside when they were ambushed by the Fulani herdsmen and their heads cut off,” area resident Louis Oguche told Morning Star News in a text message.
Oyaje Sule, uncle of Oche Alaade, confirmed the killings in a statement issued to local press on Monday evening.
“My nephew, Oche Alaade, and his friend had come to the village for a visit and were returning to Obagaji town today in the morning where they reside, when they were ambushed by armed Fulani herdsmen, who killed them by cutting off their heads,” Sule said. “And because of the nature of their death, the two of them have been buried without their heads.”
The murders follow a herdsmen attack on two Christians the previous week who are receiving hospital treatment for their wounds, Sule said.
Agatu, a predominantly Christian area in the north-central state of Benue, has been under siege by herdsmen in the past four years, with many Christians killed and displaced.