President Muhammadu Buhari has described the continued killings of farmers and destruction of property in Benue State by suspected herdsmen as a deliberate evil act by enemies of the country to dismember Nigeria.

The President stated this yesterday in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.

Buhari, who decried the situation where a brother resorts to killing his brother, “a neighbour killing a neighbour and a community attacking and killing members of another community,” warned citizens against playing into the hands of the enemies.

The President said those behind the Church attack that left 19 people dead, including two priests, did not mean well for Nigeria and peaceful coexistence.

The President also noted that the revenge attacks that followed in which 11 members of the Hausa communities were killed were part of the agenda of the bandits and their sponsors to turn Nigerians against one another, adding “we must resist all temptation to fall into this laid out plan.”

He said he was greatly pained by these persistent violence and the total disregard for the sanctity of life by those he called “hideously evil people who have no iota of respect for humanity, decency and civilization.”

Buhari vowed that the government would not rest on its oars in its determination to fish out the murderers and their clandestine sponsors. He equally assured Nigerians that measures being put in place by the government would, sooner than later, bring to an end, these extremely brutal and wanton killings.