A Nigerian journalist, Mr Christian Agadibe has narrated how he and his colleagues escaped death after they were attacked by armed Islamic terrorists disguised as herdsmen in Kogi State.
According to Agadibe, the incident happened on April 4, 2024, when he, alongside his other three colleagues, was invited by a farmer to investigate and report a land dispute between the farmer and some people.
On that fateful day, Agadibe said while on the farmland, they were caught in a gun duel between the herdsmen and the villagers who had been complaining about the herdsmen invading their farms.
He said that 21 people were left dead during the gunfire exchange while he and his colleagues ran for their lives.
“I was invited by a farmer from Omala local government of Kogi State to organize a media team to cover the growing tension in the community due to recent violence by herdsmen attacking the community,” he said
He added: ” I went with my colleagues Yetunde, Katherine Robinson and Rotimi. Unknowingly, we arrived on the day the herdsmen had planned to attack the community. The armed herdsmen opened fire on us, thinking we were farmers from Kogi State but we ran for safety while the farmer who invited us was killed.
It was later we knew they picked up the farmer’s phone and began calling all his contacts, threatening them. They saw my number too and called me. The caller spoke in Hausa, saying, ‘We have killed them all; let’s see how you will write the news. We have your name, Christian. We will get to you, and we are going to kill you, too.”
Agadibe said he and his team managed to escape to Benue State unharmed but shaken and terrified. After their safe return, he read on news about the community that the herdsmen who attacked the village on Thursday were up to 100 hundred, and more than 20 bodies had been found.
He also said he read that the attack was a reprisal by Islamic Fulani terrorists after the villagers killed six of them three days earlier.
Kogi and Benue States are one of the targeted states that have experienced attacks by Fulani herdsmen.
Thousands of Nigerians who stay in the Middle Belt have been killed massively with past and present governments not able to find solutions to it.
Unfortunately, the rising tension is now creeping into other states of the federation.
The journalist, who is from Enugu State, is afraid for his life because the herdsmen are known to have attacked Uzouwani town in Enugu, where he hails from.
When the journalists involved called the Police PRO, Williams Aya, they were told that more than 19 people were killed on the day of the attack and were warned to stay away from the troubled community.
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