Death Toll Rises to 78 in Nasarawa Attack

Death toll on last weekend attacks on Tiv communities in Nasarawa State has risen to 78.

It rose from 32, as earlier reported, to 78 as a result of the search and recovery of some missing persons' corpses yesterday.

The last weekend coordinated attacks have led to the sacking of all Tiv communities across Obi, Awe, Doma and Keana Local Government Areas of the state with over 100,000 persons taking refuge in the headquarters of the council areas.

President of Tiv Youths Organisation in the state, Peter Ahemba, confirmed the new casualty figures in an interview with journalists in Lafia yesterday.

He stated that the additional dead bodies were recovered from Uluji,

Ayaakeke, Uvirkaa, Usula among other villages, noting that most of the victims were those trapped in villages along Agwatashi-Jangwa road in Obi council area.

He said: "We are still searching for many of our people missing since the attacks occurred. Corpses of those killed, especially those at Kertyo and surrounding villages, have not been recovered up till now that I speak with you."

Meanwhile, the state Governor, Tanko Al-Makura, was on Tuesday pelted with stones by some aggrieved Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at Agwatashi town when he was on an on-the-spot assessment visit to some of the IDPs camps and other affected villages in Obi Local Government Area.

The IDPs were protesting the killing of their relations by marauding herdsmen said they could no longer bear the incessant attacks on their communities.

They lamented that the bodies of their relations killed by the attackers had not been recovered.

The governor, however, described the action of the protesting IDPs as understandable in view of the psychological trauma they were passing through.

He stated further that his government would continue to do everything possible to restore peace in the state.

Al-Makura, who was in the company of other government functionaries, including security chiefs in the state, could not proceed to Keana IDPs camp as arranged in his itinerary due to the incident at Agwatashi.