Armed men suspected to be herdsmen attacked Terwase Orbunde, a former Chief of Staff to Governor Samuel Ortom, on Friday evening, leaving him with a bullet in his arm before abducting his wife and a maid.
The attack took place close to the Genocide Cemetery where seventy-three victims of the 2018 herdsmen killings had been buried along the Mobile Barracks-Welfare Quarters Road in Makurdi, the state capital at about 6.00 pm.
Orbunde escaped with a gunshot on his right arm while the attackers whisked away Mrs Abigail Kashimana Orbunde, and her maid identified as Patience Ogute.
Eyewitnesses who declined to be named say that Orbunde, his wife and maid, had gone to inspect the weeding of their farm located close to the road.
They said: “After the inspection of the work, five gunmen suddenly attacked the victims as they walked back to the car.
“The herdsmen opened fire and Mister Orbunde received a bullet on the right arm while they ordered him and the women to follow them to an unknown destination.”
The shooting was said to have caused villagers and passersby to scamper for safety in different directions, the witness says.
“As they marched along, the former Chief of Staff was bleeding profusely and unable to walk quickly, then the leader of the group ordered him to walk away while the gunmen took the women to an unknown destination while Good Samaritans conveyed Honorable Orbunde to hospital,” one of the witnesses said.
The Benue Police Command spokesperson Sewuese Anene said Orbunde had gone to the police station last night to incident the matter with a gunshot injury to his right arm.
“Yes, Mister Terwase Orbunde had come into the police station last night with a gunshot injury to his right arm, complaining of an attack on him by gunmen and the whereabouts of his wife and maid,” the spokesperson said.
“The police immediately mobilise to the Adeke-Utur axis along the mobile barracks road to trail the bush path, but were unable to immediately find them, we have recovered their vehicle and an investigation is ongoing to rescue his family members.”
But the police are on the matter, the image maker added.