Graphic: Lawyer and his pregnant wife brutally murdered by suspected Fulani herdsmen

[Edoman]

Graphic: Lawyer and his pregnant wife brutally murdered by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Benue







A popular Benue lawyer, human rights activist, Moses Udam and his pregnant wife have been brutally murdered by unknown men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.
 

 
Barrister Udam, who is a Managing Partner at Orkar, Udam and Associates (Attorneys and Legal Consultants), was killed alongside his wife, Nkechi, at Agboughul area of Makurdi on Tuesday night, December 15. 
 

 
It was gathered that the attackers stormed their residence in the middle of the night while they were asleep and slaughtered them.
 
A third person identified as elder Nyikyor Mazugu was also murdered while three people are being treated for severe injuries sustained during the attack.
 

 
Governor Samuel Ortom, who confirmed the incident on Wednesday, says Benue State under his watch will not succumb to attacks by ''terrorists whether they are jihadists or militia herders whose sole target is occupation of the state and destruction of lives and property.''
 
The Governor made this position known while addressing journalists when he visited the scene of herders’ attack on Agboughul community. 
 
He stated that the pattern of the attack and killings barely four days after a similar incident at Tse-Angbande was unfortunate and bore the handwriting of mindless jihadists who had set out to overrun the state.
 
The Governor noted that the series of attacks were a grand plan to whittle down operations of Livestock Guards and Agro Rangers who are doing very well in containing attacks on communities and enforcing the ranching law of the state.
 
Ortom lamented that developed climes globally with higher number of cattle compared to Nigeria have no cases of conflicts between herders and farmers due to ranching which is also being practiced in Benue, stressing that he would continue to speak against impunity in the country.
 
Udam had in 2015 contested for Makurdi Local Government Chairmanship seat on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
 

[Edoman]

They raped her in the bathroom and shot her in the head - Colleague shares 'true story' of how herdsmen slaughtered Benue lawyer and his wife







A Lawyer, Jirgba Terfa Jirgba has shared his version of what hppened during the brutal murder of his senior colleague, Udam Moses and his wife by suspected hersmen in Benue state. 
 

 
Barrister Udam, who is a Managing Partner at Orkar, Udam and Associates (Attorneys and Legal Consultants), was killed alongside his wife, Nkechi, at Agboughul area of Makurdi on Tuesday night, December 15. Read HERE
 

                                                  Jirgba Terfa Jirgba
 
Taking to Facebook on Wednesday, Jirgba narrated what he described as the 'true story of the brutal murder. He also alleged that the herdsmen gang raped Udam's wife, who is said to be few months pregnant.
 
Read the story below: 
 

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.