Displaced people of Agojeju-Odo community in Omala Local Government Area of Kogi have pleaded with the federal and state governments to assist them to return home after Thursday’s bandits attack.

The bandits had launched an attack on the quiet and peaceful Agojeju-Odo community, killing 25 persons, injuring some and displacing the community.

Some of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) made the appeal to journalists who visited them at Bagaji-Odo community on Saturday.

Patience Akauwu, a 67-year-old woman, said that life had become tough and hard for them, having lost their farm produce to the attackers.

“We have been displaced and suffering here in Bagaji-Odo due to a lack of food and a conducive place to stay.

“All we are asking for is the federal and state governments to assist in providing adequate security for us to to return home, ” she pleaded.

Also, Joshua Salifu, a farmer, said that his wife and children were still missing and pleaded with the government to help find them.

He said that when the bandits attacked the community between 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, everyone in the village began to run helter-skelter.

“At that time, we were running for our dear lives. I’m here in Bagaji-Odo, not knowing where my wife and children are.

“I took part in the burial of the 25 persons killed, but my wife or any of my children was not among them,” he said.

Mr Salifu said that he was afraid to return to the village to search for his loved ones and felt helpless.

Another IDP, Paul Achabo, a farmer, begged the government to help set up a military presence in the Agojeju-Odo community, a border village between Benue and Kogi.

Mr Achabo said that unless there was adequate security in the community, they could not go back for fear that the bandits might return.

According to him, all their foodstuffs such as yam, cassava, maize, cashew and beans were carted away by the bandits.

The district head of Bagaji-Odo, David Akpa, also pleaded with the government to come to assist the IDPs and the affected communities

“This is because we don’t have the kind of sophisticated weapons the bandits have to face them.

“God knows we have no problem with the herdsmen around us, but why they did this to our people, we don’t understand,” the traditional ruler said.

Suspected armed herders killed at least 25 people and wounded an unspecified number of others in Omala Local Government Area community of Kogi on April 4.

 The attack reportedly came in retaliation for local residents recently killing six herders.

(NAN)