Benue State is once again drenched in blood as a wave of coordinated attacks by suspected armed herders has left no fewer than 72 people dead, prompting Governor Hyacinth Alia to make a desperate appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and top security agencies to declare the crisis a national emergency.
What began as a chilling assault between Thursday and late Friday night in the Ukum Local Government Area has now spiraled into one of the deadliest massacres in recent times. The onslaught, described as “deliberate and strategic,” has devastated multiple communities, leaving behind mass graves and grieving families.
Initial figures released on Saturday by Governor Alia put the number of recovered bodies at 56, mostly from Ugondo, Logo, and Tyuluv communities in the Gbagir axis of Ukum. But by Monday, the death toll surged as search-and-rescue efforts continued in surrounding bushes and hard-to-reach areas.
“This was a premeditated massacre,” said Isaac Uzaan, a government spokesperson. “We feared this would happen. As local security operatives and volunteers pushed further into the woods, more corpses were discovered, brutally murdered and abandoned.”
Governor Alia, visibly shaken during a press briefing, described the attacks as a “strategic ambush” designed to destabilize rural livelihoods at the most critical time of the year—planting season.
“These terrorists are not just killers; they are economic saboteurs,” Alia declared. “They’re targeting our people at the start of the farming season to drive them off their ancestral lands and collapse our food supply chains. This is warfare disguised as conflict.”
He warned that the true scale of the tragedy might be even worse, as countless families remain unaccounted for in remote villages now deserted.
“We are dealing with enemies of peace who are armed, trained, and organised,” the governor continued. “Our communities are under siege. I am calling on President Bola Tinubu, the Nigerian Army, and all relevant security agencies—this must be treated as a national emergency. We cannot carry this burden alone.”
Benue State has been the epicenter of Nigeria’s escalating farmer-herder crisis, a deeply rooted conflict driven by fierce competition over land, dwindling grazing routes, climate change, and unresolved historical tensions. The Middle Belt, once Nigeria’s food basket, has now become a battleground.
Over the past decade, the frequency and brutality of such attacks have intensified, with thousands killed and hundreds of communities displaced. Yet, justice and concrete federal action remain elusive.
As the bodies pile up and survivors count their losses, one truth echoes across the valleys and fields of Benue: inaction is no longer an option.
PIONEER NEWS 