17/06/2025
Open Letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Date: June 17, 2025
Welcome to Benue State: A Clarification on the Crisis and a Call for Truth
Your Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
On behalf of the resilient and peace loving people of Benue State, I warmly welcome you to our land as you prepare to visit us on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in response to the ongoing crisis that has claimed countless lives and displaced thousands.
Your decision to clear your schedule and personally engage with our people during this dark hour is a gesture we deeply appreciate. It signals hope and a commitment to addressing the profound suffering in our communities. We trust that your visit will mark a turning point in the quest for justice, peace, and security in Benue.
However, as the Voice of the Voiceless, I am compelled to address critical misrepresentations in the narrative surrounding the crisis in Benue, as reflected in the State House press statement issued by your Special Adviser, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, on June 15, 2025. While we commend your directive to security chiefs to restore peace and your call for dialogue, we must clarify that the characterization of the violence as involving “warring parties” or “farmers-herders clashes” does not reflect the reality on the ground.
The people of Benue are not engaged in conflicts with any group; rather, we are victims of relentless, unprovoked attacks by suspected Fulani terrorists who kill, maim, and displace at will.
For years, our communities particularly in Guma, Gwer West, Kwande, Ukum, Agatu and Logo, have endured coordinated assaults by armed groups consistently identified by survivors as Fulani terrorists. These attackers, wielding sophisticated weapons, strike with impunity, slaughtering men, women, and children, burning homes, and destroying farmlands. The recent massacre in Yelewata, where over 200 lives were lost, is but one in a long series of atrocities. Victims and eyewitnesses have repeatedly affirmed that th
