ABOUT 30 people have been killed with about 60 houses destroyed in Ugba town, headquarters of Logo Local Government Area of Benue State in a crisis in the last two days.
It was gathered that the crisis, which started late on Sunday, sparked off spontaneous reactions in the early hours of Monday, when some youths turned the town into a theatre of war, maiming and killing people on sight.
The traditional ruler's house was razed while four of his relations, including his wife, were murdered by the rampaging youth.
Both the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) traded blame over the crisis that has been tagged political violence.
Governor Gabriel Suswam, who addressed newsmen at the Government House, on Monday, after his visit to the area, confirmed that the traditional ruler of the community lost four relations, including his wife, while his house was also razed. The governor said he was able to visit the house of the traditional ruler and that of the first victim, whom he described as a money lender in the community, who died along with his friend.
But the state chairman of the ACN, Mr Abba Yaro, who spoke accused the ruling PDP of causing the crisis in the area, stating that some youths belonging to the PDP stormed the house of one of the politicians in the area and killed him and one other person.
He said that the ACN was a peace-loving party, which he said was “taking legal means to reclaim our stolen mandate.”
Governor Suswam who was visibly disturbed by the crisis said that he personally visited the house of the slain money lender on Sunday, stressing that the divisional police officer told him that no arrest had been made in connection with the death of the money lender but that the ACN unleashed terror on the PDP members in the council area.
Ironically, both the governor and the ACN governorship candidate in the state, Professor Steve Ugba, hail from the same troubled council area.
The governor, who accused the opposition party of being behind the spate of violence in the state in recent times, vowed that his administration would leave no stone unturned to unearth the perpetrators of serial crises in the state.
The governor said that soldiers and mobile policemen had been drafted to the area and stated that normalcy was being restored to the area at the time he left the local government area.
According to him, “I have decided to invite you to brief you gentlemen of the press about the ugly development at Ugba in Logo Local Government Area of the state, where some ACN supporters have burnt down houses and killed people. Some of the houses burnt were houses belonging to the party chairman in the council; one belonging to the women leader. Also, the house belonging to the town’s traditional ruler was razed down with four of his relations killed in the attack that started around 2.00 a.m. and so many houses.”
“Let me say emphatically here that the government will no longer tolerate the arson going on in the state. This arson is being perpetrated by the ACN chieftains. With all these, the ACN is going too far. This is no longer politics but criminality. A few weeks ago, the ACN chieftain was at the thanksgiving service where they made inciting statement. This government will no longer tolerate these utterances, falsehood and false alarm. The man that was said to have been killed was a money lender, the DPO of the area confirmed this to me and said that no one had been arrested in connection with this," Suswam said.
The state police spokesman, Mr Alaribe Ejike, confirmed the incident but could not give the number of casualties at the time of filing this report.
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