TIDA reveals number of Tiv people killed by herdsmen in Nasarawa

A socio-cultural organisation for Tiv indigenes in Nasarawa state, the Tiv Development Association, TIDA, has disclosed that no fewer than 50 persons have lost their lives to attacks by herdsmen on communities in Nasarawa South senatorial district, adding that 83 villages have been razed with property including farmlands and economic trees believed to be worth billions of naira destroyed since January.

President of the association, Mr. Boniface Ifer, who made this known at the weekend while speaking with journalists in Lafia, the state capital, disclosed that all the affected persons and villages are of the Tiv extractions, as he wondered why it is being claimed in some quarters that his people were not being killed.

According to him, “We don’t know the exact number of causalities because we still have cases of missing persons whom we assumed are dead but because of security reasons, we cannot organise a search to recover their bodies.

“I want to clear the air where some people are denying that there is crisis in Nasarawa State and that the people in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp are all from Benue State. I want to debunk that statement. Let me tell you that over 50 Tiv sons and daughters in Nasarawa State are already dead as a result of these herdsmen attacks.

Ifer disclosed that the military and police deployed in Nasarawa State on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari had arrived the state but refused to move to the affected areas where people were being killed on a daily basis and houses being burnt down.

“We don’t know why the military refuse to move to the affected areas. We want the whole world to know that the military deployed in Nasarawa State have been stationed in one place in Lafia,” he said.