Yunana Yakubu Babas, the regional police commissioner, said the fatalities occurred on Saturday after violence erupted between herders and farmers from the Tiv and Fulani communities.
The clashes were triggered after the body of a herder, who had been robbed of his motorcycle, was found in a village in the eastern Nigerian state of Taraba.
Babas said that Fulani herders had accused members of the Tiv farming community of banditry, claiming that the act had resulted in the victim’s loss of life and earnings.
"The kinsmen of the deceased attacked the [farmers] with guns whom they accused of the killing," he noted.
The regional police commissioner concluded that calm had been restored after the unrest and reconciliatory meetings were held between the two community leaders on how to bring an end to such incidents in the area.
Local media gave a higher death toll of the weekend clashes and said the violence had forced hundreds of residents to flee their homes.
Deadly violence between farming communities across central and northern Nigeria is common in Nigeria, where clashes over grazing and water rights between Fulani herdsmen and farmers have led to several killings over the past years.
The Fulani herdsmen usually encroach on and destroy the farmers' lands, especially during the dry season, resulting in clashes with the farmers trying to stop the Fulani people from using their farmlands as feeding ground for their cattle.
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