At least two people have been confirmed killed while several houses burnt as farmers and herders clash in Powishi village of Billiri LGA, Gombe State.
WikkiTimes gathered that the incident started on Wednesday when some herders allegedly attacked an elderly man working in his farm in the village identified as Yusuf Akwara with machetes and cutlasses resulting in his death.
Angered by the development, irate youths in the village set on a reprisal attack, targeting Fulani herders residing in the village, thus killing one person, as confirmed by the police.
Buhari Abdullahi, Police Spokesman in Gombe told WikkiTimes that the incident got to the police when the second person killed was taken to hospital.
He said another reprisal was organized by the herders who rode on motorcycles in the early hours of Thursday, setting houses ablaze and injuring anyone they come across.
“The attackers rode on motorcycles and set houses ablaze. They were wielding machetes and cutlasses. They fled on sighting security operatives deployed after the report of the first incident”, he said.
According to him, the locals in the community had first, told combined security operatives deployed in the area that nothing had happened in the town, saying “the first attack on the elderly man was carried out in the farm and the first reprisal was on the outskirts of the village”.
Abdullahi said that security operatives and residents helped extinguish the fire set by the attackers who immediately fled the scene.
“Presently there is a security team deployed to the community, the Commissioner of Police has visited the community and efforts are ongoing to trace and arrest the perpetrators”, he added.
