Tension in Ebonyi-Benue border community over cattle killings
By John Okezie
Tension is building in Ataroga, a border community between Ebonyi and Benue states over the killing of over 40 cows in the area by unknown gunmen.The incident occurred last Sunday.
Atoga is an Ebonyi speaking community in Ado Local Government Area of Ebonyi State
The community is currently deserted following the incident with houses destroyed and property looted.
A viral video of the incident has been trending on social media with some indigenes of the area crying for security agents intervention and government intervention.
In the video, a man speaking Izzi, an Ebonyi dialect is seen crying for help
“We are in trouble, the the Izzi people in Ataroga, Benue are in serious trouble for what we didn’t do.
“We are not responsible for the killing of over 40 cows in this community, we are not the ones that killed the cows.
“Our brothers in Ebonyi, His Excellency Governor Francis Nwifuru should come to our aid before we are wiped out for what we don’t know about.
“Igede people are the ones that killed these cows, we didn’t kill cows. These Igede people invaded our community at 4:am on Sunday and killed cows and sacked herdsmen from the community and we are now suffering it.
“Our people are being killed, our houses are being destroyed, our property are being looted. Herdsmen are burning our houses, they are killing our people.
“Many people have been killed in our community. We need help from our people, Izzi is one. Our Izzi brothers in Ebonyi should come to our rescue, we have nobody to intervene for us”, the man lamented.
At the time of this report, some members of the community have been arrested by security agencies while tension is very high in the area.
