Tears flowed freely in the sleepy community of Otobi-Akpa days back when the community conducted a mass burial for ten of the fifteen victims of the 15th, April, 2025 herdsmen attack on Otobi-Akpa community in Otukpo local government area of Benue State.
The arrival of the corpses in white caskets on a pickup van at the burial ground threw the entire community into mourning.
Some children and women rolled on the floor crying while others sobbed in pain.
Some families, who lost more than one person to the terror attack, confessed that the trauma was better imagined.
Security operatives offering protection at the burial ground were also moved to tears.
A community leader, Emaikwu Ode, regretted that the incident that gathered the entire community and other Akweya communities was the first in the history of the Akpa people.
In his words: “Our people are peaceful and accommodating. In the past, we lived peacefully and cordially with Fulani herders. Whenever there are misunderstandings, there are laid down ways we settle and continue to live in peace till recently when Fulani people started kidnapping our people and killing indiscriminately at any slightest provocation.
“We used to hear how Fulani herders attack and kill people in some communities in Plateau and other places, today we have had our own share of the terror attack. We appeal to the government to end this war, else it might degenerate into another civil war because no community will fold its arms and continue to watch another rain terror attack on its citizens.
“We are not ready to take this bloodshed and reckless killings next time in our community,” he said
The community leader disclosed that some persons are still missing since the April 15th incident.
According to him of the 15 persons killed by the suspected herders, four are non-indigenes and have been taken to their villages for burial.
