Herdsmen Slaughter Benue Lawyer, Moses Udam, Family After Birthday Celebration

Barely few hours after celebrating his birthday, a Benue based
Legal Practitioner, Moses Udam Esq was murdered by suspended
herdsmen together with his family on Tuesday.

It was reported that his house was invaded in the late hours of
Tuesday where they were gruesomely killed and their properties
vandalized.

One Mr. Jirgba Terfa
Jirgba^[1], who took
to his Facebook handle said he had allegedly investigated the
incident and consequently, he narrates as follows:

“The Killing of Barr. Udam Moses, Wife and 3 Others:
The True Story!

The early hours of today witnessed the most gruesome murder
of my senior colleague and brother, Hon. Barr, Moses Udam, his wife
and 3 others. I have taken time to investigate what led to the
killings and also to ascertain the true story, since there are
several conflicting stories around the incident.

What transpired at Agboughoul, behind Modern Market this
morning that left the bodies of my colleague and several others
dead is one of the several attacks by the Fulani herdsmen. Udam’s
residence is located at the western part of Makurdi and is almost
the last house towards the Benue River. The place has seen several
Fulani herders’ attacks in the recent past and has practically been
deserted as Fulani herdsmen have continued to lay claim to the vast
land that stretches from Agboughol, Kpeifi behind NKST church, Kua
to River Benue, where the incident took place.

The place where the incident took place is less than a
kilometer to Modern Market, the biggest market in Benue state.
Fulani herdsmen who have carried out several attacks on that
community in the past this morning were said to have split
themselves into two groups during the attack according to a
colleague who witnessed the onslaught.

They arrived Agboughol, Kpeifi behind NKST church, Kua at
about 11 pm with sophisticated weapons and were heard speaking in
Hausa language with a touch of Fulfude accent. One group blocked
the famous Kua road that leads to Ortom’s farm and the other group
stood at Udam’s house directly facing Nyiko’s compound who is also
a victim of the attack. The biggest problem in this area is the
lack of access road. The road is practically immotorable and it’s
very difficult to ply it even with a motorcycle. And to worsen it,
there is no single police post in a community that houses over 5
thousand people.

“The true story is that Fulani herdsmen arrived the area
crossing through River Benue in numbers and camped within the
Fadama that stretches from River BENUE to the neighboring houses
where our colleague also built his house. Mind you, our colleague’s
house is the last house that when you pass you won’t see any other
house till the next big village where herdsmen had slaughtered
hundreds of people the other year.

“Their target was to silently pick their victims in their
sleep and slaughter them from house to house and leave quietly the
next morning without any trace. They began by entering the house of
Barrister Moses Udam and one Mr. Nyiko, a blind man who is also a
victim of today’s attack. When the herdsmen entered Udam’s compound
which is unfenced, they discovered that the group that went to Mr.
Nyiko’s house had been spotted by a young man who ran out through
the window on sighting them from afar and was already shouting and
alerting the public of their presence.

The herders immediately became apprehensive and started
shooting sporadically in order to scare people. They shouted in
pidgin English with a thick Hausa accent and demanded that Udam
must open his door. But as Udam refused they started shooting at
his door until the bullets tore the door apart and they got inside
where they fired at him even as he was shielding his wife. They cut
his head and followed his wife, raped her in the bathroom and
finally killed her with a bullet that went through her head. They
also fired a shot at the nanny and cut her in several places and
she is currently receiving treatment in the hospital.

“They finally returned to Nyiko’s house and killed him with
3 of his grand children and ransacked the whole house, carted away
cash and other valuable items and followed the river path to where
they used their canoes and crossed into Nasarawa state.

People who saw these killers know that they were Fulani and
had come with a mission to eliminate the entire community.

“Their modus oparandi still remains the same. So to try to
give another story is unacceptable.”

However, the images obtained by Nairalaw showed that
they were ruthlessly killed and matcheted.

Barely few hours after celebrating his birthday, a Benue based
Legal Practitioner, Moses Udam Esq was murdered by suspended
herdsmen together with his family on Tuesday.

It was reported that his house was invaded in the late hours of
Tuesday where they were gruesomely killed and their properties
vandalized.

One Mr. Jirgba Terfa
Jirgba^[1], who took
to his Facebook handle said he had allegedly investigated the
incident and consequently, he narrates as follows:

“The Killing of Barr. Udam Moses, Wife and 3 Others:
The True Story!

The early hours of today witnessed the most gruesome murder
of my senior colleague and brother, Hon. Barr, Moses Udam, his wife
and 3 others. I have taken time to investigate what led to the
killings and also to ascertain the true story, since there are
several conflicting stories around the incident.

What transpired at Agboughoul, behind Modern Market this
morning that left the bodies of my colleague and several others
dead is one of the several attacks by the Fulani herdsmen. Udam’s
residence is located at the western part of Makurdi and is almost
the last house towards the Benue River. The place has seen several
Fulani herders’ attacks in the recent past and has practically been
deserted as Fulani herdsmen have continued to lay claim to the vast
land that stretches from Agboughol, Kpeifi behind NKST church, Kua
to River Benue, where the incident took place.

The place where the incident took place is less than a
kilometer to Modern Market, the biggest market in Benue state.
Fulani herdsmen who have carried out several attacks on that
community in the past this morning were said to have split
themselves into two groups during the attack according to a
colleague who witnessed the onslaught.

They arrived Agboughol, Kpeifi behind NKST church, Kua at
about 11 pm with sophisticated weapons and were heard speaking in
Hausa language with a touch of Fulfude accent. One group blocked
the famous Kua road that leads to Ortom’s farm and the other group
stood at Udam’s house directly facing Nyiko’s compound who is also
a victim of the attack. The biggest problem in this area is the
lack of access road. The road is practically immotorable and it’s
very difficult to ply it even with a motorcycle. And to worsen it,
there is no single police post in a community that houses over 5
thousand people.

“The true story is that Fulani herdsmen arrived the area
crossing through River Benue in numbers and camped within the
Fadama that stretches from River BENUE to the neighboring houses
where our colleague also built his house. Mind you, our colleague’s
house is the last house that when you pass you won’t see any other
house till the next big village where herdsmen had slaughtered
hundreds of people the other year.

“Their target was to silently pick their victims in their
sleep and slaughter them from house to house and leave quietly the
next morning without any trace. They began by entering the house of
Barrister Moses Udam and one Mr. Nyiko, a blind man who is also a
victim of today’s attack. When the herdsmen entered Udam’s compound
which is unfenced, they discovered that the group that went to Mr.
Nyiko’s house had been spotted by a young man who ran out through
the window on sighting them from afar and was already shouting and
alerting the public of their presence.

The herders immediately became apprehensive and started
shooting sporadically in order to scare people. They shouted in
pidgin English with a thick Hausa accent and demanded that Udam
must open his door. But as Udam refused they started shooting at
his door until the bullets tore the door apart and they got inside
where they fired at him even as he was shielding his wife. They cut
his head and followed his wife, raped her in the bathroom and
finally killed her with a bullet that went through her head. They
also fired a shot at the nanny and cut her in several places and
she is currently receiving treatment in the hospital.

“They finally returned to Nyiko’s house and killed him with
3 of his grand children and ransacked the whole house, carted away
cash and other valuable items and followed the river path to where
they used their canoes and crossed into Nasarawa state.

People who saw these killers know that they were Fulani and
had come with a mission to eliminate the entire community.

“Their modus oparandi still remains the same. So to try to
give another story is unacceptable.”

However, the images obtained by Nairalaw showed that
they were ruthlessly killed and matcheted.