Communal clash claims 14 lives, destroy property in Benue

<p>He said there were reports of reprisals leading to the loss of more lives on Tuesday.</p>, <p>The youth leader of Igede Youth Council, Andyson Egbodo told DAILY POST that calm had returned.</p>, <p>They had demanded to know who authorised the Professor to make use of the land in contest.</p>, <p>A source told DAILY POST that the dispute started on Sunday when youths of Ibilla and Oju communities engaged one another in a bloody fight over land.</p>, <p>This, thereafter, triggered a protest by the community laying claims to the land.</p>, <p>The Police warned that anyone caught fomenting trouble will be shot dead by the military.</p>, <p>The immediate cause of the fight was an Australia-based professor from the Ibilla community who proposed to establish a university on a plot of land belonging to the community, stressing that the residents objected to the siting of the university on their land.</p>, <p>Fourteen (14) persons have been killed and property worth millions of naira destroyed following a communal crisis in the Oju Local Government Area of Benue State.</p>, <p>The source said following the clash, a curfew was imposed on residents in a bid to stem the tide of violence in the area by the state government on Monday.</p>, <p>Catherine Anene, the Benue State Police Public Relations Officer, however, denied knowledge of the incident and the killings.</p>, <p>He explained, “Some persons have died from both sides and property has been destroyed also. From the information within my reach, about 14 persons have died; two from one community and 12 from the rival community.”</p>, <p>Governor Hyacinth Alia, on Monday, declared a curfew on the two communities from 6pm to 6am, saying when the government discovered that the measure wasn’t effective, the curfew was extended to 24 hours starting from Wednesday.</p>, <p>Reports also had it that a signpost of the proposed university, mounted on the land had the name of another community on it and not that of the supposed land owner.</p>, <p>Following the meeting, there ha