Residents of Mbachoon Community in Yaav District of Turan, Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State, have accused local authorities of disrupting a planned mass burial for eleven persons reportedly killed by suspected armed herdsmen.
The incident, which occurred on March 13, 2026, created tension in the community as grieving families gathered at a mortuary to retrieve the remains of their loved ones for burial but were unable to proceed.
Community members alleged that the mortuary attendant had been taken away on the orders of the Kwande Local Government Chairman, a development they claimed prevented the release of the corpses.
Witnesses said the situation nearly escalated when some residents threatened to forcefully gain access to the mortuary. However, calm was restored following the intervention of religious leaders and community stakeholders.
A cleric and social advocate, Ezekiel Dachomo from Plateau State, who was present at the scene, urged residents to remain peaceful and avoid taking the law into their hands. He condemned the “insensitivity to the plight of bereaved families” and called on authorities to take urgent steps to improve security in the area.
Dachomo also said a new date for the burial would be fixed once the remains are released to the families.
Also present was an American philanthropist, Alex Babir, who expressed concern over the situation and pledged support to the affected families and the wider community.
Earlier, a community leader, Chief Fabian Yaga, alleged that the disruption was deliberate, claiming that the mortuary attendant had been taken away before the arrival of sympathisers.
He revealed that the incident had compounded the grief of families already affected by repeated attacks in the area.
Yaga further claimed that more than seventy bodies of victims from previous attacks were currently deposited in the mortuary, adding that the community had endured multiple incidents of violence in recent times.
In a similar vein, the community spokesperson, Dickson Akaatyoor, alleged that the disruption may have been intended to prevent wider public attention on the killings in Kwande communities.
Also speaking, the State Coordinator of Equipping the Persecuted, an international humanitarian organisation, Andy Nomsoor, said the group had been providing support to victims of the attacks. He noted that the organisation donated eleven caskets for the planned burial and provided financial assistance to the affected families.
As part of humanitarian efforts, Dachomo was said to have donated N250,000 to support the families, while Babir pledged to assist in rebuilding houses and providing a borehole to improve living conditions in the community.
However, the Kwande local government chairman, Hon. Vitalis Neji, while reacting on Ashi Waves FM, Katsina-Ala, and during and interaction with his kinsmen in a viral video, denied his alleged involvement in disrupting the mass burial.
According to Neji, he was out of Kwande local government when the incident took place. “They just want to tarnish my image. I wasn’t even in that place when the mass burial was to be held”, Neji claimed.
The Council chairman further described the mass burial as fake, insisting that all the eleven victims were already buried by their families a week before the planned mass burial.
