The Benue State Police Command has said nine persons were killed on Monday in a communal clash in Awe, a Benue/Nasarawa boundary town.
Police spokesman, Daniel Ezeala, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Makurdi, the state capital.
Ezeala said the deceased have been deposited at the Gbajimba General Hospital morgue in Guma.
He said the command was investigating the cause of the clash, adding that it had not made a formal complaint to any security agency on the clash.
The spokesman said the police recovered the bodies following a widespread rumour on the killing.
Ezeala assured that the situation was under control.
He urged the people to go about their businesses without fear of molestation.
The Chairman of Guma Local Government Area Mr Usa Adi said the assailants razed three villages in Njorov District of Guma.
He said several residents of the affected villages, who fled to neighbouring villages for safety, have not returned.
The council chairman appealed to security agencies, especially soldiers drafted to Guma, to forestall further breakdown of law and order.
Adi accused the villages on the Nassarawa/Benue boundary of harbouring bandits, who were responsible for the recurring clash.
He advised the government of both states to fish out the killers.
