{"id":81361,"date":"2026-01-09T08:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T08:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=81361"},"modified":"2026-01-09T08:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T08:27:16","slug":"eight-feared-dead-as-rival-cult-clashes-spread-across-benue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/01\/09\/eight-feared-dead-as-rival-cult-clashes-spread-across-benue\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight Feared Dead as Rival Cult Clashes Spread Across Benue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Huldah Shado<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No fewer than eight persons have been killed following a wave of rival cult clashes across several communities in Benue State.<\/p>\n<p>The Benue State Police Command had earlier confirmed two deaths from a clash between rival cult groups in Jato Aka, Kwande Local Government Area.<\/p>\n<p>However, findings indicate that the violence has since spread to Otukpo, Makurdi and Gboko LGAs, pushing the death toll to eight.<\/p>\n<p>Investigations revealed that one person was killed in Otukpo earlier in the week, while two others died in a related clash in Gboko about a week ago.<\/p>\n<p>In Makurdi, three persons were shot dead during coordinated attacks around the Wurukum area on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>An eyewitness said the attacks occurred around midnight, with the assailants fleeing immediately after the shootings, leaving residents in fear.<\/p>\n<p>The Chairman of Makurdi Local Government Area, Mr Joseph Keffi, confirmed the killings and condemned the violence, describing it as senseless.<\/p>\n<p>He extended condolences to the affected families and assured residents that the council was working with security agencies to restore peace.<\/p>\n<p>Keffi urged residents to remain calm and vigilant, and to promptly report suspicious activities to security operatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Huldah Shado No fewer than eight persons have been killed following a wave of rival cult clashes across several communities in Benue State. The Benue State Police Command had earlier confirmed two deaths from a clash between rival cult groups in Jato Aka, Kwande Local Government Area. However, findings indicate that the violence has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":81362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81363,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81361\/revisions\/81363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}