A legal practitioner Moses Udam and his wife Nkechi Udam have been killed in Agboughul community in Makurdi, Benue State capital.
The couple were murdered after gunmen stormed the neighbourhood on Tuesday. A blind septuagenarian Nyikor Mazugu was also killed.
The gunmen left three persons comprising two children of the blind and a sister to the deceased lawyer injured in the attack.
The gunmen, who were eight in number were said to have attacked Agboughul around 11 pm and also ransacked the neighbourhood where they collected N200,000 from a man named Amaa Atee.
“The gunmen who spoke English and Fulani languages stormed the community between 11pm and midnight,” Atee said.
“The first place they visited was the thatched house of the old blind man where they killed the elderly man. It was his children who were able to escape that raised the alarm.
“I learnt they later went to the lawyer’s house where they vandalised his house and killed him and the wife. My wife ran away while I climbed the ceiling and left behind my children.
“When they arrived at my house, they met the two grown-up children and asked where their father was; and they told them I was not around.”
Governor Samuel Ortom, who was at the scene of the attack on Wednesday, described the attackers as terrorists.
“Benue State under my watch will not succumb to Fulani jihadist no matter the intimidation. Let them know that the day of reckoning is very near. We are not going to be provoked,” he said.
However, Benue police spokesperson Catherine Anene said two persons were killed in the attack, with one other receiving treatment at Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH).
