"I Was High On Tramol 200" — Suspect Confess Slaughtering Two Girls

There was an outburst of anger and outrage in Benue State few days ago when news of the slaughter of two teenage girls by a 20-year-old Fulani herdsman at Zongo village, Mabala Council Ward in Makurdi, the state capital, filtered into town. The unprovoked killing which generated palpable tension in Makurdi town in particular, would have snowballed into another round of bloodbath between Benue farmers and Herdsmen in the state but for the quick intervention of the newly posted Police Commissioner, Mr. Hyacinth Dagala and Governor Gabriel Suswam which calmed frayed nerves.

The swift action of the duo also led to the arrest of the suspected principal suspect who after intense interrogation by the police, gave vivid account of what transpired and how he also inflicted serious injuries on another female member of the family.

The only survivor of the attack, 14-year-old Jirgba Nyeshilea, who is currently in intensive care at a public hospital in Makurdi, also gave account of her ordeal and how her sisters were slaughtered .

HOW IT HAPPENED
As Nyeshilea wept uncontrollably, she narrated how she accompanied her two sisters aged 15 and 18 to fetch firewood at Zongo village in Mabala Council Ward of Makurdi five days ago. According to her, while in the bush,we met the suspect, a Fulani herdsman who asked if we saw any man passing by. “We told him that we did not see anybody, he then asked us to follow him. We were forced to follow him out of fear, we trekked with him to a point where we saw another two of his colleagues. That was where they all asked us to lie down. But we were scared.

“They eventually forced my two sisters down and two of the men raped them, but they did not rape me. After raping them, they started cutting them with their knives until they killed them. At that point, I started running and shouting for help, but one of them came after me and cut me with a knife and I fell down.
“I passed out for sometime and in my pool of blood, they thought I was dead, but luckily, when they left, I gathered myself and managed to escape back to the village. That was how I found myself at the hospital.”

SUSPECT SPEAKS
Narrating his own side of the story, the prime suspect, 20-year-old Adamu Ibrahim, who confessed that he was under the influence of a drug, Tramol 200, when he committed the heinous crime said he killed the girls out of provocation.

“I was in the bush grazing my cow when a Tiv man approached me claiming that I damaged his farm. I told him I was not the one and he insisted I was the one. In the midst of the argument and confusion, my herds scattered in the bush. I started chasing after them in order to gather them. On my way, I met three girls whom I asked if they knew the man that was accusing me of destroying his farm and they said yes.

“They, however, refused to disclose the man’s residence, claiming that they did not know his house. The eldest amongst the girls started insulting me and she came and held my cutlass. I told her to get off my cutlass. She continued pulling the cutlass. The second one came and started taunting me and pulling my dagger and in the process, the knife cut her hand.

“I withdrew from them and asked if they can face me and they said yes. That was why I pulled out my knife and cut the eldest. The other one that had a cut on her hand ran and moved away and was watching from a distance, but I also caught up with her and cut her down. I also did the same thing to the third.”
“They pushed me into what I did because I was pleading and asking that they left me alone. I feel very sorry for what I did, because it is a crime. I was actually under the influence of Tramol 200. I normally buy the tablet from one Tiv man in the village. I take it to feel high and for energy because whenever I take it, I hardly get tired of moving about with my cow.”

Source: Vanguard