PBAT’s visit is what primary school children call “notice-me.” This was not quite useful to the horrified, completely traumatised, and highly terrorised people of Benue State. He did not even visit Yelewata, the same place journalists, social activists and ordinary Nigerians, who had no security details, visited. It appeared his visit to the state was for personal interest and that of the lackadaisical and inept governor, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia. In fact, Alia transformed President Tinubu’s condolence visit into a festival, with state-sponsored and colourfully attired groups turning out, and rain-soaked school children lining up in the streets.
The Yelewata massacre in Benue State started at about 10:00 p.m. on 13 June into the early hours of the next morning. It was raining when the Fulani terrorists, armed with sophisticated weapons, and bearing fuel, invaded the community.
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Stephanie Shaakaa reported that they, “herded families into their homes, locked the doors from outside and set fire on everything.”
Shaakaa’s report, titled, “Yelewata Massacre: What the Benue people expected from President Tinubu,” published in Vanguard newspaper of 21 June, revealed that forty-five people were burnt in one house alone, while in another twenty-eight were “charred beyond recognition.” There was the woman who “lost her five children, burnt alive alongside her aging mother. Nothing was spared. No one.”
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Eight-year-old Terver lost both parents. Another boy, who when asked where he came from replied, “I don’t come from anywhere. I come running … my Dad and Mom were burnt like charcoal. I couldn’t differentiate which corpse was Mom’s or Dad’s.”
At the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp clinic, a pregnant woman, horrified and terrorised, delivered herself of twins, as the clinic was overcrowded. She said, “I didn’t scream. I bit my hand to stop myself from making noise. I was scared they would hear me.”
There is the case of an agitated, distraught, nervous, and destabilised man, who said his six-month-old baby was pulled from the rubble three days after the attack. The baby survived but was bruised and dehydrated. The man said, “my wife and four other children were found in pieces. Only this one survived.” Another father is currently nursing his six-month-old baby with burns in hospital.
Scholastica Hir, Saturday Sun correspondent, quoted victims as saying the terrorists wore black cloths, some covered their faces with masks, and shouted “Allahu Akbar,” while shooting and slicing people with machetes, roasting some alive, and forcing others to part with their money and cell phones.
Hir’s report, titled, “Benue: Tale of tears, sorrow and blood” in Saturday Sun of 21 June, stated that a victim, Felix Chitamen, lamented that he lost twenty-six members of his family. Another survivor, Eunice Abela, said, “They beheaded my child. He was just three-years-old. He has never offended anyone before. But the Fulani herders killed my child. They took my baby from my hands, he was crying and they cut off his head.”
Whereas the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, was vociferous on the Uromi killings, which he described as “barbaric, inhumane, and devilish”, and called on the security agencies to “quickly swing into action to arrest the evildoers and ensure that they are punished in line with gravity of their criminal acts”, his voice has not been similarly audible in the crimes against humanity in Yelewata.
Hir observed that, “Thousands of displaced residents, including women – some pregnant, others breastfeeding mothers – and children populate the place (IDP camps). Many are sick and hungry, with nothing to call their own, not knowing where or when the next meal would come from.”
Yet, governments at the federal and state levels appear unserious in tackling terrorism. They seem to show bravado only when the politically dormant Hausa majority and the ethnic minorities vigorously react to the terrorists’ violence.
For instance, when sixteen supposed “hunters” were burnt in Uromi in Edo State on 27 March, governments and political gladiators, especially from the North-West, issued strongly worded condemnations. Edo people residing in Kano were threatened with reprisal attacks on social media. Not so was the case of the Yelewata massacre.
In the Uromi case, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) expressed “shock at the dastardly act” and instantly directed security agencies “to conduct swift and thorough investigations and punish the suspected culprits.” But PBAT described the Yelewata masscre as “inhuman and anti-progress.” National and international reports, condemnations, outrages, and protests against the massacre apparently compelled PBAT to visit Benue.
Whereas the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, was vociferous on the Uromi killings, which he described as “barbaric, inhumane, and devilish”, and called on the security agencies to “quickly swing into action to arrest the evildoers and ensure that they are punished in line with gravity of their criminal acts”, his voice has not been similarly audible in the crimes against humanity in Yelewata.
His feeble call in the Senate chambers was for increased support for security agencies to unravel those behind the attacks. The Senate, which Barau is the second-in-command, first, simply described the Yelewata massacre as “deadly attacks” and “heinous killings.”
It took the Senate twelve days to characterise the Yelewata massacre as “terrorism”, and to call on the Federal Government to deploy more military personnel to Benue State; compensate families of the victims; reconstruct properties destroyed; and to thoroughly and transparently investigate the carnage, with the aim of identifying and prosecuting all perpetrators.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, had angrily condemned the Uromi killings as “barbaric, cowardly, unacceptable” and “one of the most cowardly acts seen in decades.” But on the well-organised, well-coordinated, well-executed and militarily-precise Yelewata massacre, he was far less vociferous, merely saying that the killings were barbaric and unacceptable, then that he was backing President Bola Tinubu’s call for the arrest of the suspects.
If PBAT had visited the Yelewata victims in their IDP camps, he would have seen their terrified faces and tears. Talked and listened to them. Directly heard their voices and cries. Also, victims like Agber, who lost his wife and three daughters, would have had the opportunity to speak to him, and he would not have needed to say to the media that, “tell Abuja we are still human beings here. Tell them to stop sending words. We need action. We need to go home.”
PBAT’s visit is what primary school children call “notice-me.” This was not quite useful to the horrified, completely traumatised, and highly terrorised people of Benue State. He did not even visit Yelewata, the same place journalists, social activists and ordinary Nigerians, who had no security details, visited. It appeared his visit to the state was for personal interest and that of the lackadaisical and inept governor, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia. In fact, Alia transformed President Tinubu’s condolence visit into a festival, with state-sponsored and colourfully attired groups turning out, and rain-soaked school children lining up in the streets.
If PBAT had visited the Yelewata victims in their IDP camps, he would have seen their terrified faces and tears. Talked and listened to them. Directly heard their voices and cries. Also, victims like Agber, who lost his wife and three daughters, would have had the opportunity to speak to him, and he would not have needed to say to the media that, “tell Abuja we are still human beings here. Tell them to stop sending words. We need action. We need to go home.”
If PBAT had such direct contact, he might not have merely admonished the Benue indigenes to embrace peace and inclusion, as if they are not peace-loving. In any case, what is peace without justice? Peace based on terrorism, fear, and silence is not sustainable. Peace germinates when social justice is upheld; it flowers where development and democracy are pursued holistically.
A more proactive president would have used Owei Lakemfa’s expressions, and thundered that, “criminality is criminality irrespective of who commits it.” He would have particularly directed the armed forces, in line with Lakemfa’s suggestion, to “retake all communities and villages occupied by the invaders and return the IDPs to their ancestral homes.”
Similarly, PBAT would have directed all the appropriate government authorities to bring the “bandits and terrorists… to justice”; and condemned outright the senseless, disgraceful and “worthless peace accords” some governors have signed with terrorists.
Further, PBAT should have declared that Nigerians have the right to self-defence and directed the “general mobilisation of Nigerians for mass defence and attack” against terrorists and genocidal forces.
Can President Tinubu’s promise to convert the “tragedy into prosperity” bring the slaughtered, beheaded, and roasted back to life? What Nigerians need is justice for all victims.
Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf worked as deputy director, Cabinet Affairs Office, The Presidency, and retired as General Manager (Administration), Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NiMet). Email: [email protected]
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