The Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase has disagreed with the casualty figures being circulated following last week’s clash between Fulani herdsmen and the people of Agatu community in Benue State, saying that the numbers are exaggerated.
Recall that some armed Fulani herdsmen had attacked some villages in Agatu, allegedly killing and maiming all on their path, with the death toll put at 300 and the number of displaced persons pegged at 7,000.
But while addressing officers and men of the Niger Police Command in the state capital, Minna, Arase said it was impossible to just kill people and bury them without police knowing about it, and that the number of casualty available to the police did not tally with the ones being bandied.
He said: “I was around, I travelled to Benue State, I did not see where 300 people were buried.”
“If you kill, you don’t just bury; you must take the corpse to the police station before you bury, we don’t have that number of people,” he added.
He also promised to find a lasting solution to cattle rustling in the country, and that modalities which involves heightened vigilance and monitoring are already being put in place to arrest those involved in the act.
The Agatu clash started after 10,000 herds of cattle belonging to the Fulani herdsmen were reportedly killed, it was learnt.