TheCable

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called on the federal government to investigate the airstrike that led to the death of several persons — including herders — in Kwateri, a community between Benue and Nasarawa states.

Murtala Aliyu, secretary-general of the forum, said this in a statement on Sunday.

The airstrike, according to Abdullahi Sule, governor of Nasarawa, occurred when herders went to the area to retrieve their seized cattle.

Sule had earlier said 37 bodies have been recovered from the explosion.

Speaking on the development, the ACF said the federal government must probe “the circumstances surrounding the killing of pastoralists who went to Makurdi, the Benue state capital, to retrieve 1250 impounded cattle from the Benue Livestock Guards after paying a fine of N29 million to guards”.

“In a serious country, the death of one person is enough to attract the attention and intervention of the government,” Aliyu said.

“To our knowledge, only government has the power to deploy armed drones.

“Sources told the ACF that drone strike happened while the livestock was being offloaded after the owners were forced to take back their cattle in trucks from Makurdi.

“This incident came barely six months after a similar incident in which hundreds of livestock were killed when a helicopter gunship belonging to the Nigerian Air Force from the Makurdi base operation carried out the strike killing and wounding the animals and some herders in Awe also in Nasarawa state.

“The Nigerian air space is managed by the federal government through the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority (NAMA).

“So, we expect the federal government to immediately fish out the perpetrators of this dastardly act, whoever they are, to face the law.”

The secretary-general of the forum condoled the families of the deceased and commended the Nasarawa government for supporting the survivors.