Gunmen have killed at least three people in two separate attacks on communities, and travellers along the Otukpo-Enugu Road in Benue State, in incidents that occurred within hours of each other on Friday evening.

Residents said the attacks, believed to have been carried out by the same group of armed invaders, first occurred at about 5pm on Friday at Ukpamaju village in Otukpo Local Government Area where two farmers were shot dead while working on a farmland with a tractor.

The victims were identified as Friday Omoha from Ogbadibo LGA and Francis Liambee from Guma LGA, who was reportedly operating a tractor hired from Gboko.

An unnamed security operative involved in the response said officers moved to the deserted village after receiving a distress call and trailed the attackers to a nearby farm, but the gunmen had already fled the area.

“One of the survivors told us the attackers were about 15 and armed with AK-47 rifles,” the security operative said.

Chairman of Otukpo LGA, Maxwell Ogiri, who confirmed the incident to journalists in Makurdi, noted that the bodies of the two victims were later deposited at the mortuary of the Federal University of Health Sciences Teaching Hospital, Otukpo.

He further disclosed that while security personnel were still responding to the earlier attack, another distress call was received at about 10pm that armed men had blocked the Ojano axis of the Otukpo-Enugu highway in Ohimini LGA.

Ogiri explained that security operatives, alongside troops of Operation Whirl Stroke, reportedly engaged the attackers in a gun duel after the gunmen attacked a TMT mass transit vehicle and other motorists on the highway.

He said that three injured passengers were evacuated to hospital, but one of the victims later died.

The chairman further explained that security findings indicated that about 15 armed men participated in the highway attack which raised suspicions that the same group responsible for the earlier killings in Ukpamaju carried out the second attack along the Ojano road in Ohimini LGA. (Weekend Trust)