3-6-2025
Women accompanied by youths in Gwer West Local and Apa Local Government Areas of Benue State Tuesday protested the unchecked killing of their kinfolks by rampaging herdsmen.
The women mounted roadblocks on Otukpo-Abuja federal highway to register their displeasure on government’s failure to tackle the gunmen terrorising their communities.
As at Monday morning 66 persons have been confirmed dead by the authorities following raids by the armed herdsmen.
The women, under the aegis of “Voice of the Hopeless Women,” said they have faced sustained attacks by the armed herdsmen which has led to the loss of lives and property.
“We have been enraged by their entrance into our farms, homes, and rooms to kill and destroy our children, husbands, and dear loved ones, including fellow women,” the women said in a letter addressed to the government at all levels.
“Today, our children can hardly go to school, our lives are in danger, our future in shambles.”
This protest follows the Sunday killing in Ankpali Edikwu, also in Apa LGA, where armed men reportedly stormed homes in broad daylight, brutally killing residents in what witnesses described as a deliberate and savage attack.
Eyewitness accounts suggest that the victims were not caught in crossfire but hunted down in their own houses, a pattern increasingly being reported in the region.
A protester who does not want her name in print said the fear and tensions are compounded by a perceived silence from both state and federal authorities, which many residents believe has emboldened the attackers.
She said: “Even in the Northeast where Boko Haram operates, they don’t go into people’s homes to slaughter them like animals.
“But in Ankpali and other parts of Apa, Fulani herdsmen go from house to house, butchering people in such dehumanising and cruel manners.”