Benue/Ebonyi: Residents flee Benue community over border crisis

Residents of Agila community in Ado Local Government Area in Benue State have fled their homes following an alleged attack by their Ngbo neighbours of Ebonyi State. 

Our correspondent reports that the two border communities of both states have engaged in an age-long dispute over land to such extent that many people lost their lives in the past. 

Parish Priest of St. Peters’ Catholic Church in Agila, Father Emmanuel Onoja, told newsmen in Makurdi on Tuesday that his church came under heavy attack by the Ngbo militia following a renewed crisis. 

“There was heavy shooting in the Church. Since the crisis started, this is the first time, I am experiencing this. They wrote an inscription on the wall telling Agila people to depart the land. They nearly killed a young man who was farming behind the Church.

“I called the Deputy Governor Engr. Benson Abounu who promised that the government will send soldiers to the area, but as I speak to you nothing has been done. We are living in fear. Several persons have deserted the area and fled to safety,” he said. 

On his part, the Ado Council Chairman, James Oche, alleged that the fresh attack on his people by Ngbo community was an attempt to frustrate the boundary demarcation between Benue and Ebonyi States as well as Enugu and Benue States.

He added, “This is the second attack in a week. They attacked Government Secondary School, Agila, and a Catholic Church. 

Though there are no casualties, basically, they are carrying out these attacks to frustrate the Federal government’s effort at re-beaconing the Benue/Enugu and Benue/Ebonyi boundaries.”