Residents of Akum Ward in Nasarawa State are pleading with President Bola Tinubu to act after a young farmer fell victim to an alleged attack by suspected armed herders. The incident happened on Saturday, 4th July, when the man was killed while heading back from his farmland, according to community member Yahaya Kana Ismaila.
Ismaila told reporters the killing has deepened panic among people already displaced by earlier violence in the region. He noted that the latest attack struck the same area where over 80 residents died in a wave of assaults earlier this year, prompting many families to abandon their homes.
Those who fled the earlier attacks remain trapped away from their communities due to ongoing danger and the presence of suspected assailants, Ismaila explained. He stressed that nobody has faced arrest for the previous killings, despite community calls for accountability.
"The attackers are moving around freely in our villages, while our people who want to farm again are living in terror," he said. Ismaila warned that fresh violence could spark reprisal killings if authorities don't act fast to restore security.
The community leader criticized Nasarawa State Government for treating the earlier attacks as merely a communal dispute rather than a targeted assault. He insisted multiple communities have been ravaged by coordinated violence, not random conflict.
Ismaila made a direct appeal to President Tinubu, asking the Federal Government to boost security operations in the affected areas and prosecute those behind the attacks. "There's a clear push to remove our people from their land," he told reporters.
"President Bola Tinubu must help us and bring back peace to our communities."
He also called on Gaza Gbefwi, who represents the ward in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, to keep pressing relevant agencies on the security crisis. The legislator should intensify efforts to highlight the dangers facing residents, Ismaila added.
The Nasarawa State Government and security agencies have not issued official statements regarding the latest killing as of press time. Efforts to get their response proved unsuccessful.
