How wrong diagnosis of insecurity fuels killings in Benue, Plateau

…Tor Tiv tells truth to power, hits the nail on the head

…It is purely organised criminality – Mutfwang

…Nigerians ask FG to go beyond rhetorics

…Say, it’s time to punish killer-herdsmen

On March 12, 2018, Muhammadu Buhari, the then president of Nigeria, was in Benue to meet the then governor, stakeholders and especially the helpless people, who kept losing loved ones, farmlands and ancestral homes to killer herdsmen.

The presidential visit then came about 10 weeks after the new year’s day massacre of 70 innocent farmers in Logo and Guma local government areas and a week after the Omusu killings in Okpokwu local government area of the state.

At the end of the day, the then president commiserated with the people over the killings and assured the victims and Nigerians that justice would be served.

Read also: Benue massacre: Adebayo pick holes on Tinubu’s visit

Sadly, about seven years after that massacre and presidential visit, Benue is still boiling, innocent people are still being killed and the government has continued to assure victims that justice will be served.

Tor Tiv blows hot

The unfulfilled promises of the government and the seemingly blaming of the attacks on communal clashes, made James Ayatse, a professor, the Tor Tiv, the paramount ruler of Tiv people and chairman, Benue State Council of Traditional Rulers, to clear the air on the identity of the killers and pointing to the failure of the government in securing lives and property of the people it swore oath to protect.

The angry royal father was disappointed that even Hyacinth Alia, governor of Benue State and a Tiv son, also joined those who claimed that the killers were not from Nigeria and at another point, that the killings were from communal clashes, which the Tor Tiv is not aware of and cannot settle as tradition demands.

Having failed to cease the opportunity of Buhari’s visit in 2018 to clear the air and call for sincerity in finding solutions to the killing of his people, the Tor Tiv was very bold at President Bola Tinubu’s visit to Benue on June 18, 2025.

The presidential visit was not for funfare but to douse the tension in Benue after a brutal wave of violence that saw over 100 people being killed in Yelewata and Daudu communities in Guma Local Government Area on June 14, 2025 with the death toll reportedly rising to 200, and drawing national outrage and renewed attention to the state’s long-running insecurity.

Facing the governor and Mr. President squarely, the Tor Tiv dismissed the official framing of violence in the state as farmer-herder clashes, but a deliberate and escalating genocidal invasion by herder terrorists and bandits.

“Your excellency, it is not herder-farmers clashes, it is not communal clashes, it is not reprisal attacks, this is a calculated, well-planned, full-scale genocidal invasion and land-grabbing campaign, and it has been happening for decades,” Ayatse said.

Read also: Benue Killings show Nigeria unprepared for sophisticated foreign-backed attacks- Dickson

The Tor Tiv was concerned mostly about the misinformation and misrepresentation of the security crisis in the state, which probably was the reason there has been wrong diagnosis and wrong treatment.

“What we are dealing with here is war, not a misunderstanding between neighbours,” he noted.

The royal father and his subjects hoped that the governor will not pretend again on the identity of the killers and that Mr. President would give the right treatment to the situation now that the right diagnosis has been done.

It is purely organised criminality – Mutfwang

Many Nigerians believe that the refusal or failure to tell the truth about the cause and nature of the insecurity in Benue and Plateau States may have emboldened the perpetrators.

Speaking with some editors recently, the Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang said that the problem of insecurity may have lingered because it has not been properly characterised or has not been given the appropriate name.

“For me, the first matter to deal with the security challenge is an honest conversation. Because once you have a mischaracterization of the reasons behind the conflicts, you are not going to apply the right solutions. And that’s why it has not only been sustained, it has almost engulfed the entire country, as we are talking today,” Governor Mutfwang said.

According to him, “I have challenged the traditional narrative of herders-farmers clash. Since coming on board, I found that it’s nothing but trash. It’s a facade to continue with criminality, organised criminality, that’s actually what is happening; it is a deliberate attempt to make sure that people do not cultivate their farms. And if they don’t cultivate their farms, which is their main economic activity, invariably you have pushed them into poverty.”

Read also: Plateau commission rallies support against gender based violence

Tinubu talks tough

As expected, on his official visit to Benue, President Tinubu met with different stakeholders, injured survivors, local leaders, while promising justice and ordering security agencies to hunt down the perpetrators.

He left Benue with firm directives to Kayode Egbetokun, Inspector General of Police; Christopher Musa, Chief of Defence Staff, to immediately arrest the criminals, while urging heads of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) to intensify surveillance and gather actionable intelligence to apprehend the perpetrators.

Yet again, he directed the establishment of a committee of elders, made up of past and present governors, including the governors of Nasarawa State.

For many, the irony is that the government seems to be soft on the killers, who should face justice for killing innocent people.

“The talk at the president’s stakeholders meeting was all about peace, land, victims, committee and promises, what about the killers, who has sighted one, can’t they be arrested and why is the government not bold at talking about them? We have established who the killers are and they should face justice now that it is hot,” Simon Okpe, a Kogi-born civil activist said.

‘Efforts have been feeble at ending insecurity’

Julius Wambegh, an agricultural entrepreneur, who gets most of his suppliers from Benue State, decried that the killers are known, they have families who nobody touches and they even challenge authorities.

“If Nigeria is a sovereign nation, how come some of these elements are still challenging the government and nothing seems to happen. The government should be sincere this time with Benue because the people being killed are farmers and food insecurity looms,” Wambegh warned.

However, days after the visit and promises, Benue indigenes are waiting for action as such promises have been made in the past, yet the killings continued

Terfa Iorzua, a professor at University of Jos, noted that the people are not expecting much from the visit because at first, the president was reluctant at coming and his visit only witnessed usual promises like Buhari, his predecessor.

“In a sane society, the president will be in Benue on hearing the massacre or at most, the next day. They even used the visit as platform for campaign for 2027. So, how are you sure that his directives to security chefs will be obeyed. I think my people should be allowed to defend themselves, they can,” he noted.

Bem Hembafan, a retired senior security officer, regretted that it was all cheers while the president visited, instead of cries to drive home the message.

“I stand with my father, James Ortese Iorzua Ayatse, the Tor Tiv, our professor and our mouthpiece, who said the truth and did not care about politics that has ruined our brothers in Aso Rock.

Read also: 58 killed, 15,000 displaced in recent Plateau attacks Group

“How can your people be dieing every day by the bullets of killer herdsmen and you say it is communal clash? How did they get AK47, why has anyone of them not been arrested? Our Tor Tiv will live long,” he noted.

From his experience in over 25 years in active service in security for the country, Hembafan noted that presidential directives are not obeyed immediately because you need to deploy the needed personnel, equipment and get your men to be in the right mindset for success.

“Yes, President Tinubu has given marching orders to security chefs, but it will take a while to take effect because you need to put somethings in place to fully carry out that directive.

My fear is that the killings will continue until the president’s directives are carried out, which I fear may be partially done,” the retired security officer said.

Doubting the sincerity of the government this time and the compliance with President Tinubu’s directives to the security chiefs to fish out the killers, Tom Agerzuah, an Abuja-based lawyer, argued that sterner directives on security have been given even recently in Plateau and Borno states, yet the killers are still on rampage.

“I don’t expect much from the presidential visit. President Tinubu even asked why no one has been arrested for committing the heinous crime in Yelewata. He specifically called out the police boss for failing to conduct arrests.

Is it the ill-equipped police that should face terrorists or soldiers? Let’s be sincere with the Benue people this time because the killers are intentional, they are after our land and will keep killing if the government does not truly intervene,” the Gboko-born lawyer lamented.

Pam Dati, an Abuja-based corporate executive, argued that the situation in Rivers State that warranted Mr. President to declare a state of emergency is not half of the ugly situations in Benue and Plateau states.

“Imagine over 100 people killed in a day. If I were the president I will declare a state of emergency in Benue, Plateau and Borno states, which are killing fields for terrorists today. I will empty our soldiers in the forests to kill at sight any strange face, let people go to court to argue the innocence of those killed by the soldiers in such action.

Instead of that visit, I think that declaration of state of emergency would have given Benue the needed respite,” Dati said.

Also speaking on lasting solutions, Dati and Okpe do not support offering land for ranching as President Tinubu urged the Benue governor to do.

“The killers are after Benue, Plateau and even Taraba lands and you want to give them after the killings. Where are they from? Don’t they have land? The government should stop them, flush them out of Middle-Belt and North-East regions because they are land grabbers and thieves,” Dati said.

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Argezuah does not believe in the elders committee too.

“We have Northern Elders Forum, which Benue State is a member, we have Middle Belt Elders Forum too, but all without result. Benue people need action now and not committees. We need soldiers inside our forests to flush out the killers and land grabbers,” Argezuah said.

On the above issue, the Tor Tiv criticised it as dangerous narratives, especially from those urging Benue residents to be tolerant or negotiate peace.

“You don’t negotiate with invaders, you defend your land,” Ayatse, the Tor Tiv concluded.

Many prominent Benue indigenes also toed the lines of their paramount ruler, saying that Benue will not fall to land grabbers even if their sons in government keep quiet.

“We need to defend ourselves going forward because the picture is clearer now. It is not communal clashes, but killer herdsmen killing our people and invading our land. If the government cannot help, we help ourselves,” a prominent Benue son, who pleaded for anonymity, said.