10 corpses have been recovered from two villages in central Nigeria’s Benue state following a Thursday night attack by armed bandits, a police spokesman said on Friday.

Axar.az reports citing AP.

“Eight dead bodies were found in the bush around the villages of Tse-Audu and Enger in Gwer West local government, in addition to two bodies that were earlier removed from the same area,” Benue police spokesman Moses Iyamu said in a statement.

Iyamu said a police surveillance team had exchanged gunfire with the bandits in the area, adding that efforts are underway to return to normalcy there.

On Thursday, federal lawmakers from Benue claimed that 24 people have been killed in the state over the last few days, calling for full military deployment in the agrarian state where farmers and herders are locked in internecine combat that has claimed hundreds of lives in recent months.

Politicians have alleged that the killings are by herders who operate with impunity across many villages. Police have not confirmed the claim.