TheCable

Abdullahi Sule, governor of Nasarawa, says 37 persons have been buried following an airstrike that occurred in Doma, a community that connects Nasarawa and Benue states.

Sule said this on Thursday night in an interview on Channels Television.

The airstrike, which occurred on Tuesday, was said to have affected herders who were waiting to transport their cattle.

“It has to do with some Fulani who got to rescue their cows, and after rescuing the cows, there was a bomb blast at the area where they gathered their cows to bring them back to Nasarawa state,” he had said.

On its part, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) said the explosion killed 31 herders and an unspecified number of livestock.

Baba Ngelzarma, MACBAN president, said the affected herders had gone to get 1,250 of their cows impounded by the Benue livestock guards.

Earlier on Thursday, the Nasarawa police command had confirmed 27 deaths.

Speaking during the interview on Thursday night, Sule said 37 persons had been buried, but added that a yet-to-be-confirmed number of fatalities was also reportedly recorded in Benue.

“We have buried 37 people yesterday. That is what I can tell you for sure. But my colleague from Benue state also said he had some burial yesterday in Benue from the same incident,” Sule said.

“So, I will not be able to give you the exact figure but I can only tell you the one that we received in Doma local government yesterday, and God so kind, we were able to bury them.

“They are Nasarawa people; they are Fulanis who live in Nasarawa state, who have their families in Nasarawa state. About nine of them were from just one family; the father came in and I was able to talk to him, sit with him, and console him. So, I think all of them that we had were from Nasarawa state.”

Speaking on if the airstrike was from an aircraft belonging to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), the governor said the investigation is ongoing, adding that from information, there was an operation in the state targeted at “bandits”.

“What we heard was that actually, there was an operation and during the operation, there was a drone that was sent out following some bandits. So, it was in the process of bombing the bandits that these innocent people were killed,” he said.

“We have so many operations. We have air force base that is operating; we have the special forces in Doma; we have the whirl stroke operating in Makurdi. We have many of them, so I don’t want to point a finger at any one of them, because I’m not sure what happened. That is the position right now.”