Tension gripped Yelwata community in Benue State on Monday after suspected armed herdsmen killed three residents and injured three others in an early morning attack.
The incident, which occurred around 7 a.m., sparked a protest as locals blocked the Makurdi–Abuja federal highway with the victims’ bodies, halting traffic for hours.
Community youth leader, Achii Mathias, said the assailants stormed the area, firing sporadically before fleeing. “They killed three people and injured three others,” he told reporters, adding that the state security adviser and the Guma local government chairman were on the scene.
Police spokesperson DSP Udeme Edet said she had yet to receive an official report on the incident.
Calls to Security Adviser Joseph Har and Guma LGA Chairman Maurice Orwough were unanswered at press time.
Yelwata has suffered repeated violence; at least 200 people were killed in a midnight attack on the community on June 13.