Over 5,000 persons including women, children and the aged have been killed in Moon council ward in Kwande local government area of Benue State from 2013 to date by the marauding herdsmen.
The fleeing president-general of the Moon Development Association, Isaac Sor, who disclosed this in an interview, said over 10 primary and secondary schools in the area alongside all the community health clinics, have been destroyed, adding that the whole council ward had been deserted.
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Sor, who called on the government at all level to look into the plight of Moon people said houses, crops, livestock and farms were destroyed in the invasion from 2013 to date. He estimated the cost of properties destroyed during the invasion at over N100 billion.
He said, “The enactment of the 2017 Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law by former Governor Samuel Ortom helped us to a great extent because most of our community members who left Moon, especially men, started returning and farming in subsistence quantity, but the recent invasion has killed most of them, and those who survived the attacks have fled the area and as I am talking to you now, no single person is there except the armed herders.
“We cannot even bury our loved ones in our ancestral homes, except with the help of security agencies, most of our people who were killed in the bush were left there to decay because we didn’t even know the particular point they died.”
While appealing to the administration of Hyacinth Alia to step up the enforcement of Anti Open Grazing Law to flush out all the killer herdsmen, the Moon president also appealed to the government, churches and all well-meaning organisations and philanthropists to come to the aid of the people who are scattered over the neighbouring communities.
Also, another fleeing member from Kyurav community, which is also invaded by the armed herdsmen, Mongo Tarvershima said, nine members of his community, including his blood brothers, were killed and attributed the sustained attack on Kwande communities to the recent discovery of assorted mineral resources in the area. He appealed to the government at all levels to beef up security at the boundary communities to restore lasting peace.
It was gathered that Moon Council ward which is known for the production of rice, yam, soybeans, sesame, among other crops was under siege for over 10 years.