Troops again arrested seven herdsmen in Benue State while destroying farmlands with their cattle on Wednesday.
This brings the number of herdsmen arrested for such crime to 17 in the last four days.
Ten herdsmen were nabbed on Monday while destroying farmland at Tse-Tigir and Tse-Ndugh villages of the state.
The Director of Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Texas Chukwu, said in a statement on Thursday that troops arrested four of the suspects at Gbajimba-Kaseyo-Awe and picked three along Buruku-Uba-Abeda-Ameh and Fadama Kuturu on Wednesday.
Chukwu said that a large number of weapons were recovered from the arrested herdsmen.
In another development, the army spokesman said Special Forces responded to distress call on Wednesday along Okene-Lokoja road, and engaged a gang of suspected kidnappers.
He said that based on information, the kidnappers had abducted one Alhaji Momoh on February 18.
Chukwu said that during the fire fight, the kidnappers abandoned their location and fled into bush but added that the troops would trail and arrest them.
The army launched “Exercise Ayem Akpatuma – Cat Race’’ on February 15, to address recurring herdsmen/farmers clashes and other forms of criminality in Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Niger and Kogi states.
