SO SAD, GOVERNMENT CARRIED OUT A MASS BURIAL FOR 73 VILLAGERS

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) installed the signal in the mass grave along Achusa Road just south of Makurdi, the state capital. On January 11, the Benue state government carried out a mass burial for 73 villagers killed in alleged attacks by shepherds in several villages between January 1 and 2.

Residents said the attacks left more than 100 villagers dead, but the state was only able to evacuate 73 bodies for mass burial because some villagers had summarily buried some of those killed in their communities.

Concrete vaults in the common grave are identical in their horizontal dimensions, and occupy less than half of the total 2.5 acres hastily cleared by the state government along the unpaved road.

But weeks after the Benue State chapter erected the signal, some Nigerians are concerned about the tone of the inscriptions.

"The attacks were carried out and the police are still investigating," said Shettima Mohammed, secretary of the pastoralist association in Benue. "It is hasty, and therefore incorrect, that the Christian Association of Nigeria says that the Fulani are the murderers."

Mohammed said the CAN action further strengthens his fears that the crisis of farmers and herders in the north-center is becoming increasingly politicized.

But for the Christian body, the sign was the least that could be done to keep the memories of the victims of the attacks and no one should see it beyond that purpose.

"There is no hidden agenda behind the signal," said Samson Ayokunle, CAN president, in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday afternoon. "We put it there strictly for the story."

The Christian leader said the cartel accurately recorded what happened to villagers in Benue, a position he said was reinforced by the statements of Defense Minister Mansur Dan Ali and Inspector General of Police Idris Ibrahim.

"Shortly after the people were killed, Defense Minister Mansur Dan Ali said the killings were due to the enactment of laws against open herding in the state of Benue and he did not deny that the pastors were responsible," he said. .

"Other Fulani leaders have never said that the attacks are not being carried out by their people, they just said that the open anti-grazing law was the cause," he added.

Mr. Ayokunle said that CAN placed the signpost because the victims were Christian and those responsible for his disappearance are known even though they have not been arrested.