According to PR Nigeria, the airstrike was ordered after the Military High Command received intelligence that some terrorists moved into some communities around the boundary between Nasarawa and Benue states.
More details have emerged on the cause of the aerial attack by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) that killed some cattle rearers in the Kwatiri community of Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
According to PR Nigeria, the airstrike was ordered after the Military High Command received intelligence that some terrorists moved into some communities around the boundary between Nasarawa and Benue states.
On Tuesday, at least 39 people were killed following an airstrike that hit some herders waiting to transport their cattle from an area that connects Benue to Nasarawa.
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), said the explosion happened after the herders went to get 1,250 of their cows impounded by the Benue livestock guards.
MACBAN added that after the payment of fines amounting to N29 million, some of the livestock was released to the herders by the guards and they were sadly trailed and killed while offloading the cattle shortly after they reached their destination in Nasarawa State.
MACBAN President, Baba Othman Ngelzarma accused the Nigerian Air Force of carrying out the attack.
He described the action as not only condemnable but a war crime under the Geneva convention that prohibited the wanton killing of livestock.
Quoting an intelligence source, PRNigeria reported that the incident was connected with an ongoing military operation ordered by the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, following increasing killings, kidnappings and terrorism by the criminal elements running away from troops’ onslaught in the North East and North Western parts of the country.
According to the report, the joint operation involving the military, security and intelligence components was mobilised to go and take out the terrorists only for a particular state government official (name withheld) to give the team a wrong location, leading to the bombing of the innocent herdsmen.
“The herders were killed while returning from Makurdi, the Benue State capital, where they went to retrieve over 1,000 cows seized by the Benue Livestock Guards,” he said.
The intelligence source added that it was the domestic intelligence operatives in the state, who quickly alerted the military to halt the operation, saying it was taking place at the wrong location.
Recall that a joint military operation covering Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba states, codenamed ‘Operation Whirl Stroke’, OPWS, targeted at clearing bandits and killer herders in forests and communities located in the states, has been ongoing in the last three years.