Human rights activist and lawyer Dele Farotimi has stated that it would have been better if President Bola Tinubu had not visited Benue State than to visit the state and remain unfeeling towards the plight of its people.
Farotimi said the only person who said anything of note during the president’s visit to Makurdi, the Benue State capital on Wednesday, was the Tor Tiv V, James Ayatse, who described the attacks as a “calculated, well-planned, full-scale genocidal invasion and land grabbing campaign by herder terrorists and bandits”.
“This is a calculated, well-planned, full-scale genocidal invasion and land grabbing campaign by herder terrorists and bandits.”
— Tor Tiv V, James Ayatse
Benue, a food-producing state in Nigeria’s North-Central zone, has been under heavy attacks by suspected herdsmen for some time. The killings have lingered for years, with some linking them to the quest for land dominance between the original agrarian dwellers and nomadic cattle .
