Benue community cries out over killings by militia, raises serious allegation against state government

macfranc007 February 09, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Omotayo Yusuf

- Benue residents have accused the state government of supporting a militia, named Civilian Joint Task Force, abducting and killing people

- They claimed their lives are under constant attack as they are being hounded and haunted by a reign of terror

- The residents said they had written to the presidency without reply

Members of Shitile community in Katsina Ala local government area of Benue state have raised serious allegation against the state government claiming it was supporting a militia that was abducting and killing the people.

Premium Times reports that this allegation was contained in a letter written to the presidency and other local and international human rights organisations on the matter.

They claimed the militia named Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) had the support of the state government.

The residents claimed they were being “hounded and haunted by a reign of terror characterised by frequent and rampant extra judicial killings, physical and psychological battering of women and children and wanton destruction of residential and commercial properties, all at the hands of one Aondona Ishenge.”

They said one “Mr. Ishenge, otherwise known as 'Tor-Abaji,' and his accomplices among whom is one, Ternenge Orijondo, also known as Or-Ijondo, operate under the canopy proclaimed by him as the Civilian Joint Task Force and purportedly emplaced by the government of Benue state."

They said the CJTF as a Benue state government funded quasi-security apparatus “is supervised and armed with sophisticated automatic firearms through the office of the Security Adviser, Edwin Jando (rtd) and commanded by one Aliyu Tashaku, who enjoys the ignoble fame of having been an operative of the Boko Haram terrorist group.

"In January 2017, there were many killed at Tse-Igbe, while on the 18th, 25th and 26th days of June, 2017, Tor-Abaji, dressed in military uniforms and armed with sophisticated automatic rifles, together with his horde of heavily armed gang moved through Abaji settlement on a spree of destruction, burning down houses and brutalising women and children, after which he arrested some targeted persons whom he took away to an undisclosed located and subjected them to severe torture, resulting in scores of deaths

“A number of persons were lucky to have escaped alive from the torture rounds, among them Orafalorlumun Gbiseh and Terfa Achia, both of whom narrated how Tor-Abaji, while torturing his victims had boasted of having the support of government which he bragged placed him above the law, even as he said to have vowed to bring all political opponents of the ruling government to their knees by force of arms.”

They said they had reached out to security agencies but nothing has been done yet.

The residents claimed if the CJTF is not tamed in time, "it has the capacity to rapidly grow into another terrorism monster in the kind of Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda or Taliban.”

Meanwhile, troops of 72 Special Forces Battalion and 177 Guards Battalion on Wednesday, January 31, while on joint clearance operation along Benue and Nassarawa states border, were alerted on the presence of unidentified armed militia.

It was confirmed that the criminals were setting houses on fire in Igacha village, about 4 kilometres away from Kadarko town.

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