How herders killed my 2 children, neighbours, gave me 9 matchete cuts, by Benue nursing mother

Her name is Comfort and she is in urgent need of comfort. She is going through agonising trauma inflicted on her by evil men masquerading as herders.

Like thieves, the son’s of dogs attacked Comfort Terna’s community in the middle of the night, killed two of her children and left deep matchete cuts in various parts of her body. 

The 40-year-old nursing mother narrated to Daily Sun how she used her body to cover her one-year-old baby and two others to prevent them from being killed by the terrorist-herdsmen who invaded her community in Benue.

When the killer herdsmen invaded her community, a few hours after they voted in the presidential election, which held on Saturday, February 25, across the country, Comfort, who had five children, listened from her hiding place as her two senior children were hacked to death outside her compound.

And when they finally met her inside, she gave her back to their matchetes as she said to herself that she would rather die than lose all five children in one day.

The gunmen suspected to be herdsmen militia killed 13 persons in separate attacks in three communities of Tse-Lugar, Tse Magu and Tse Dudu in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State. The incident happened barely 12 hours after the villagers returned from where they went to cast their votes in the presidential and National Assembly elections.

According to locals, the heavily armed terrorists attacked the villages simultaneously, killing eight persons at Tse-Lugar, three at Tse-Magu and two killed at Tse Dudu.

“People were still sleeping when they stormed the three communities almost at the same time and killed people.

“Eight people were killed at Tse-Lgar, three people killed at Tse Magu and two others killed at Tse Dudu in Daudu. So in all, 13 people were killed and some people were  injured,” said the Special Adviser to Governor Samuel Ortom on Security Matters, Lt. Col. Paul Hemba, who confirmed the incident. 

He also disclosed that those who were wounded were receiving treatment at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, (BSUTH), Makurdi. He said that the casualty figures would have been higher if security agents had not responded swiftly to put the situation under control.

When this reporter visited BSUTH, where Comfort and four others were receiving treatment, the former was writhing in pains from the machete cuts on her back, arms and other parts of her body.

Narrating her story through an interpreter, Comfort, who hails from Alagh village, Udei in Guma LGA, managed to say: “We were sleeping and suddenly I heard gunshots in the village. When I listened again, the sound was close to my door. 

“At that time, my people, my two children and other elders, were sleeping outside because of heat, while I was sleeping inside with my three small children. 

“When I heard the gunshots, I could not go outside because I was inside with my children. So, instead, I stood up, locked the door and went back to the room to stay with my children.

“After the men finished killing people outside, they came and kicked open the door and entered inside my room.”

According to her, when the gunmen entered her room, like the mother hen, her protective instinct showed up and all she thought of was saving her children. She said at that point she was ready to sacrifice her life for her three remaining children.

“So, when they entered my room, I gathered my three children together, including the one-year-old and covered them with my body. At the time they came, they had killed my two children, the ones that were outside, a boy and a girl. So, I didn’t want to lose five children in one day.

“When I laid on the children, the men started butchering me. I was screaming and crying but holding tight unto my children. The more I shouted, the more they slashed me with their knives. Unluckily, there was no one left to save me,” she said.

At that point, the nurse at the female orthopaedic ward, Susan Adebe, who was helping this reporter with interpretation, broke into tears. She felt the pains of her patient. She looked up with her teary eyes and let out a heavy sigh, saying: “Kai! What kind of life is this?”

“As they cut me with their cutlass, I don’t know what happened but I stopped crying. So, as soon as I stopped shouting, the gunmen noticed that I was quiet and they thought I had died. So, they left,” Comfort added.

She said the children she covered with her body were not killed apart from the two that were outside, saying she gives God glory for sparing their lives: “I know it was only God who spared my children and I.”

According to her, after they left her room, they went to the house of the eldest person in the village and killed the man. Thereafter, they went to another village to kill also.

She lamented: “When they left, I was in a pool of blood but I managed and got outside and my two children and the other were lying lifeless. This is the worst thing that has happened to me in my life. I wish its a dream so that when I wake up, my children will still be here. This attack happened around 11pm; we called the soldiers but they came around 4am.”

Another victim at the male ward, Pinega Felix, a native of Umenger, in Guma LGA, said: “On Saturday, February 25, 2023, after election, at 2am, my wife, grandfather and I were attacked by some Fulani herdsmen.”

Seeing Felix, you cannot help but wonder how he survived. He had eight machete cuts on his body: three on his head and face, four cuts on his left arm beginning from his shoulder down to his wrist and another cut on his right knee.

He told our reporter that he and his wife survived by God’s grace. “Apart from me being wounded on my body with cutlass, two other boys and an elderly man were killed.

“I was in my house sleeping inside my room with my wife when they opened my door. My wife is four months pregnant, they shot her in the waist and cut me with a machete all over,” he said.

At some point, Felix could no longer speak out because the pain from his cuts were becoming unbearable. His brother, who was by his bed side, Pinega Savior, said he was called to the hospital where Felix took his wife, and he hurriedly went there to see what had happened.

“I was told that after the election, they were sleeping and about 2am they heard a young boy shouting but they did not go out to know what was going on.

“It was that time they heard the gunshot, so they hid inside the room. While they were in the room, the gunmen came in and shot the old man and the wife that were inside the room.

“They went into the other room where Felix was after shooting his wife and grandfather and shot him. But luckily for him, no bullet entered. Then they started slaughtering him with a cutlass but they did not kill him because they had already killed other of his relations.

 “There was another woman hiding under her bed in her room but luckily for her, she wasn’t noticed so they just carried some of her properties and money she kept in her bag and they all went out,” he said.

Another victim, Evelyn Aondoaver, was also in pain from the gunshot wound on her back. In fact, the bullet narrowly missed her heart.

She was sitting in her house with other relatives when the herdsmen came shooting at them. According to her, they killed seven people that night.

She lamented that the attacks were becoming too much even when they had not wronged anyone. 

“This is not the first, second or third attack. We have had series of attacks from the Fulani herdsmen. We will run away and when the place is calm we will come back and they will come back again to attack us,” she said.

Evelyn, who hails from Udei in Guma LGA, is married, with two children. She told this reporter that for over seven years and more, they have not had long moments of peace.

“We can’t stay a whole month without attacks. We can’t go to our farms, our children can’t go to school, and we can’t access our markets. Sometimes, they come to the market to attack us. We are tired. Benue is the only place we know as home and if we are not safe in our home, where else do we go?” she queried.

Evelyn was being treated for gunshot wounds that hit her at the chest area from the back. She was attached to a chest tube, which had a collection of blood and water in it. 

At the time of the visit, the nurse on duty at the Accident and Emergency (A&E), female ward, Emmanuel Utoo, explained that “when they shot her, there was a blood collection at the thoracic (chest) cavity.” He said the tube was fixed to help drain the blood that collected in the chest area.

Utoo said, depending on her response to medication, she might be on that tube for four weeks. “We can only remove the tube if the blood stops flowing. It usually takes about three weeks or more, depending on how she responds to treatment.”

The victims were unanimous in their call on the federal government to rise up to its responsibility of securing the lives of the Benue people.

Our correspondent reports that in the last few weeks, herdsmen militia have gone on rampage, killing innocent Benue farmers in various communities of Guma, Gwer West, Kwande, Logo and Agatu, among others

While 13 persons were killed in Guma LGA in the earlier hours of  February 26, seven were reportedly killed in Gwer West LGA, with many others killed in Kwande.

The police public relations in the state, Catherine Anene, said there was no arrest yet. She explained that “the attacks happen in form of hit and run. The attackers come into the communities, hit and run outside the state completely.

“Police have been deployed to the area from Operation Zenda and other units.”

She said the attackers usually target communities, hit them and run away even before the police are informed. She, however, stated that they were not resting on their oars to ensure that life and property in the state are secured.