By Chibuike Nwabuko
ABUJA (PRECISE POST) – Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the 2023 general election, and former Kano State Governor Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has condemned the killing of nearly 200 people in Yelwata, Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.
Kwankwaso, who took to his X handle to express sorrow, described the incident as a “very sad chapter in our history,” Kwankwaso called on both the Federal Government and the Benue State Government to urgently collaborate in seeking a permanent solution to the ongoing violence plaguing the region.
“The perpetrators of these senseless killings must be brought to justice,” he said, adding that while justice is essential, efforts at reconciliation should not be neglected.
He concluded with a prayer for the victims: “May God grant the dead eternal peace.”
The Yelwata massacre is among the deadliest attacks in the state in recent times and has reignited calls for greater security and accountability in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region.
Precise Post recalls that it was reported that at least 100 people were killed in a gun attack on a village in Nigeria ’s north-central Benue state on Saturday.
According to Amnesty International Nigeria, the attack took place between late Friday and the early hours of Saturday in Yelewata, a community in the Guma area of the state.
Dozens of people are still missing, and hundreds were injured and without adequate medical care, it added.
“Many families were locked up and burnt inside their bedrooms. So many bodies were burnt beyond recognition,” Amnesty said.
Graphic videos and photographs on social media platforms showed what appeared to be corpses and burnt down houses in the aftermath of the attack.
While it remains unclear who was responsible for the killings, such attacks are common in Nigeria’s northern region where local herders and farmers often clash over limited access to land and water.
The farmers accuse the herders, mostly of Fulani origin, of grazing their livestock on their farms and destroying their produce. The herders insist that the lands are grazing routes that were first backed by law in 1965, five years after the country gained its independence.
Last month, gunmen, believed to be herders, killed at least 20 people in the Gwer West area of Benue. In April, at least 40 people were killed in the neighbouring state of Plateau.
Benue State Gov. Hyacinth Alia has sent a delegation to Yelewat to support relatives of the victims.
