By Gboyega Adeoye
The floating bodies of four men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have been found in Ofa River,Ā in Oforachi community in the Idah Local Government Area of Kogi State.
The bodies were said to have been dumped in the river by some irate youths as a revenge to the killing of one Godwin Egbunu, aged 65, on his farm last Friday by suspected herders.
Ā It was gathered that the farmer was attacked by some Fulani herdsmen who invaded his farm and destroyed his crops.
Sequel to this, Late Egbunu was said to haveĀ went to the police station to report the incident and two policemen were assigned to follow him to the farm to witness the vandalisation and possibly arrest the herders.
But event took a gory turn on getting to the farmland when the herders pounced on Egbunu and snuffed life out of him, right in the presence of the policemen.
The policemen, it was gathered, said they could not stop the farmerās killing because they were not armed.
But angered by the killing of the farmer and alleged police culpability in his death, the youths killed four Fulani in retaliation.
However, a resident said members of the community had kept bated eyes since the incidence for fear of reprisal
Tension has spread to neighbouring communities like Ogbobo, Odolu and Akpanya as they are all living in fear of possible revenge by the Fulani.
Kogi State has witnessed different attacks in respective communities in the last five years, with Tarawi and Oforachi being the latest.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of the Kogi State Police Command, Williams Anya, in a press statement confirmed the incident to journalists.
According to him, on January 18 at about 0700hrs, information was received from Oforachi that unknown persons suspected to be herdsmen killed Egbunu on his farm.
Angry youths from the village, he said, organised a reprisal during which they attacked any Fulani on sight.
He said the SUPOL stationed at Ajaka immediately mobilised personnel to the scene and rescued two injured Fulani men from the mob.
DSP Ayah said the injured Fulani men were rushed to the Isah Hospital for treatment.
He said, āNormalcy has been restored, they took the photographs of the corpses and were taken to the general hospitalās mortuary for autopsy as investigation continues.ā
He also said one Mohammed Arade a Fulani man of Egabada village reported at the Ajaka police station that two of their men namely Abubakar Nahare, 65 and Hassan Natunku aged 60 years, had not been seen since the incident happened.
He said a search party was organised to look for the two missing men.
āThe search party later saw the corpses of the two Fulani men on Ofu river at Oforachi with their hands tied into nine inches block,ā he said.
Ayah said the photographs of the deceased were taken and their corpses taken to general hospitalās mortuary for autopsy as investigation continued.
