Benue Killings: Two Catholic Priests, Others Brutally Murdered

Unic Press UK: Two priests, Rev Fr Joseph Gor and Rev Fr Felix Tyolaha, were among the seventeen people brutally murdered in an early hours of Tuesday when their parish, St Ignatius Quasi-Parish, Ukpo-Mbalom, Gwer West Local Government Council, Benue State, was attacked by killer herdsmen during morning Mass.

In a statement, Rev Fr Moses A. Iorapuu of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, confirmed that two priests working in the dioceses were among the dead, the News Agency of Nigeria reported.

Rev Fr Iorapuu urged the government to cause an end to frequent killings in the Benue valley, saying that “The attack on the priests is an attack on everything that we ever stood for and believed in.”

In the last quarter of 2017, the Benue State Government enacted the anti-open grazing law, which was aimed at tackling vicious attack on communities in the state by herdsmen suspected to be of the Fulani ethnic group.

In one of the frequent deadly attacks, which occurred on 1st January 2018,  herdsmen suspected to be of the Fulani ethnic group, murdered more than seventy people in Guma local government area (LGA) and Logo LGA, Benue State, Nigeria.