This was made known on Monday by the state’s Police spokesman, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Joseph Kwaji while addressing newsmen.
The Nation correspondent reported that the force spokesman said the incident occurred on Sunday, adding that the crisis is between Kuteb/Fulani and Tiv ethnic groups of Takum -the home of former Minister of Defence Gen. Theophilus Danjuma and Governor-elect Darius Dickson Ishaku.
He said several houses have been razed down with many residents forced to flee the community.
Kwaji further revealed that nine bodies were recovered in the attack on Takum township, adding that the casualty figure drastically increased by evening.
Meanwhile, in a reaction to the mayhem, the Chairman of Takum council, Caleb Bitrus Babafi has reportedly imposed a 24-hour curfew in the town.
The council boss said he was meeting with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to confirm the actual number of casualty. He directed the police and soldiers to restrict movement in the area in order to restore law and order.
Babafi confirmed that no arrest has been made so far, but promised the culprits would be brought to book to face the law.
A Takum resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed to The Nation correspondent that no fewer than 20 Tiv residents, mostly students, were slaughtered in Takum township by suspected Kuteb militia on Sunday night.
The resident said five of the students were murdered at the School of Health Technology hostel, while others were killed in their homes during a house to house attack by the attackers.
“We woke, this morning (yesterday) only to see the bodies of our brothers and sisters, mostly students,” the resident said.
Another source, who did not want to be named, said 30 people were murdered at a Tiv settlement, Yongogba, along Takum-Kpashe Road. The source said the assailants turned the settlement to rubble.
It was gathered that the assailants did not spare the people of Butu village. The village was said to have initially received a notice of attack allegedly sent by Fulani on Friday.
Young men and women, fled the village, but an aged man who could not run was beaten to coma by the attackers.
Soldiers reportedly took the old man to the MRS Clinic of the 93 Army Battalion, Ada Barracks, where he is currently being treated for multiple injuries.
However, prior to these attacks, a Tiv laboratory technician, Samuel Ojo, 32, was killed at the Jonas Clinics where he worked.
Witnesses said Ojo was in the lab when Kuteb militias came and dragged him outside and hung a tyre across his neck and set him ablaze.
A source from Kuteb said his kinsmen were on vendetta over five of their kinsmen who were allegedly gun down at Age by Tiv militia. The deceased who comprised two men and three women, were riding on motorcycles on Barrack-Dogon Gawa Road to a church conference when they were massacred.
It was also learnt that the assailants laid siege to many of the roads linking Takum, where they accosted commercial vehicles and kill their victims.
A witness disclosed that seven Tiv passengers were killed after they were brought out of a commercial vehicle on Dogon Gawa-Katsina-Ala Road. It said one Tiv woman was hacked while riding on a motorbike with her son on the route on Saturday.
The witness said the militias ran away upon sighting a military van at the scene. The soldiers took the woman, nearly deformed, to the Rapha Hospital, while her son who escaped into the bush, claimed the assailants were Fulani and Kuteb.
In a related development, gunmen shot dead four Kutebs and a Jukun indigenes between Kwali and Gbaaondo settlements. One of the deceased had his eyes removed when the bodies were recovered.
Three other victims could not be identified because their bodies were cut into pieces. This attack and killing took place on Vingir Road, near Loko.
The attackers, however, spared the lives of the wives of their victims, but directed them to go and break the news at home. The women said the killers were Fulani.
Also, on Wednesday, a Hausa chickens and goats trader, popularly known as Yaro Yaro, was killed with his Tiv business partner, John Chin.
It was gathered that the two men who went to nearby villages to buy chickens and goats where were accosted on their way back by suspected Fulani gunmen who opened fire on them.
Taraba State has been experiencing series of violent communal clashes usually resulting in the killing of several innocent residents.
The communal clashes are usually caused by grazing land. It is usually blamed on the Fulanis who allegedly take their cattles to graze in residents farm land. A development that causes residents their farm produce and reduces their economic gains."
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