Several houses were on Wednesday burnt in Ikpayongo in Gwer East local government area of Benue State.
According to a source in the community located about 10kms to Makurdi, the capital city of the state, the crisis started following a disagreement over land between the indigenes (Mbafombo) and settlers (Mdaivur).
The local who simply identified himself as Sam said that there was an agreement between settlers and indigenes of the community that when a settler dies he should not be buried in the community but the corpse must be taking to the country home.
“But contrary to the agreement, a settler (Mdaivur) died here and his people wanted to bury him here, so the indigenes (Mbafombo) resisted it and was finally taking home for burial only for the people to return and started trouble.
“The problem started this morning and you can see that the houses destroyed were selected but both sides were affected”, Sam said.
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Confirming the crisis in Ikpayongo, the Commissioner of Police in the State, Mukkadas Garba said he had visited the community for on the spot assessment.
He said that he was yet to get to the root cause of the crisis until he meets with leaders of the community.
“They are right now in my office and we will find out the cause of the problem.
While stating that there was no casualty recorded in the communal crisis, the CP said that most of the houses destroyed were thatched houses.
