Fires by rat hunters raze Benue villages

Over 120  houses have been reportedly razed in separate fire outbreaks at Tse Mtaghji village, Bilawa and Akpuku village, Mbagune in Gwer West and Makurdi Local Government areas of Benue State.
The two incidents, which occurred within an interval of 48 hours, razed the entire Akpuku village, while about 20 houses were consumed, yesterday, in the Makurdi inferno.
A staff of the state-owned Radio Benue, Mr. Nicholas Ticha, affected by the Tse Mtaghji outbreak, said the incident was caused by bush burning.

Ticha said: “The fire razed down our entire village including our food barn, farmland, economic trees and property worth millions of Naira.
“Though no life was lost in the incident, our people have been subjected to untold hardship because we lost everything. It can only take the assistance of public-spirited individuals and the emergency management agencies to help us start a new life in the community.”
Meanwhile, an eyewitness of the Akpuku inferno, in the outskirts of Makurdi, Dennis Ngutswe, disclosed that the fire started from a nearby bush, were some people hunting bush rats set the bush on fire.
He said most of the victims and their family members were away at the time of the incident, hence no item was rescued from the affected houses.