Nigeria village massacres reported

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo vowed revenge on the killers of 19 troops on October 12

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Dozens of people are reported to have been killed after troops opened fire on villagers in central Nigeria and razed four communities.

The reported massacres follow a warning by President Olusegun Obasanjo that those who abducted and hacked to death 19 soldiers this month would be punished.

Spealing at the soldiers' funerals on Monday Obasanjo said: "I have directed the security agencies to bring the perpetrators to book and we will make sure that sort of situation does not arise again."

Witnesses said the massacre began on Monday afternoon in Gbeji and spread to neighbouring Vaase, Anyiin and Zaki-Bian.

The latter is close to the location where the bodies of the 19 soldiers were found, regional government officials said.

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Farmer Daniel Gbeji told Reuters that soldiers gathered men in the main market square of his village, which bears his family's name, then executed them.

"An armoured car with a 911 (troop transport truck) loaded with Nigerian army entered the village," he said.

"Then they started shooting and they killed more than 100 people."

Gbeji said he hid in bushes while the massacre in his village took place.

"They (the soldiers) called people to come. They came. They said they should sit down, then a man turned to the commander for the order to start shooting. Nobody was able to escape."

Shehu Tarna Umah, a reporter for Radio Benue who accompanied a television crew on Tuesday to the area hit by the attacks, said: "In Zaki-Bian town, the whole market was razed.

"There were over 100 bodies on the ground."

Withdrawal urged

Nigerian army spokesman Colonel Felix Chukwuma denied that soldiers had killed any villagers along the border between Benue and Taraba states.

Chukwuma told Reuters the army was carrying out operations in the area to recover weapons that local Tiv militiamen had taken from the soldiers who had been hacked to death.

"The brigade was sent there to ... search to recover arms and ammunition," Chukwuma said.

"Those who killed the soldiers took away their arms and ammunition so the cordon search started three days ago."

The Benue state governor's spokeswoman, Beckie Orpin, told Reuters: "The governor is writing a letter to the president ... asking the federal government to call for a cease to the entire thing.

"If the army is sent to go to war with its citizens, the government should know it. We are calling on the federal government to withdraw the troops."