ABUJA, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria on Tuesday commenced a three-day mourning ahead of the mass burial of 71 people killed in violence allegedly perpetrated by herdsmen in the north-central state of Benue.

A mass burial will be held Thursday for the victims of the attack in Logo and Guma communities in Benue, said Terve Akase, a government spokesman.

Killings by herdsmen had increased since the start of the new year in Benue, where relations between herdsmen and farmers remained tense.

Thursday has been declared a work-free day in Benue to enable workers to attend the funeral of the victims, according to a statement by the government.

Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday redeployed the national police chief to the north-central state.

The police confirmed the redeployment in a statement, saying its chief, Ibrahim Idris, will move to the state to restore law and order and forestall the crisis from escalating.

The presidential order followed a public outcry on the security situation in the state.

National police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said "more units of the police special forces, counter-terrorism units, and conventional policemen had already been deployed to the state to comply in totality with the presidential order."

"The full weight of the law will be applied to anyone arrested for being responsible for the mayhem in the affected areas in the state," Moshood said.

Eight suspects have been arrested so far by the local police following the bloody attacks in the state.

Moses Yamu, the spokesman for the state police, said the suspects, all herdsmen, had made confessions to the security agency.

Benue had brought into effect an anti-open grazing law on Nov. 1, 2017, which ignited protests from local herdsmen.

Hundreds of people have been killed in various attacks by herdsmen in Nigeria's central states of Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau, in the past one year.

On May 24, 2017, at least 30 people were killed in an attack by suspected herdsmen who invaded a village in Benue.

The village head was among those killed in the attack which had mostly women, children and the aged as victims.

On Nov. 26, 2017, over 500 people were missing following a suspected herdsmen attack on a Tiv community in the state.