The Tor Tiv V, His Royal Majesty James Ayatse, has categorically rejected the widely circulated narrative that the ongoing violence in Benue State is a result of clashes between herders and farmers, insisting that such claims are gross misinformation that obscure the real nature of the crisis.
Speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Benue State Government House in Makurdi on Wednesday, the paramount ruler described the attacks as a “calculated, well-planned, full-scale genocidal invasion and land-grabbing campaign” that has plagued the state for decades.
“We do have grave concerns about the misinformation and misrepresentation of the security crisis in Benue State,” the Tor Tiv said. “Your Excellency, it’s not herders-farmers clashes, it’s not communal clashes, it’s not reprisal attacks or skirmishes.”
He warned that such misleading narratives have led to faulty prescriptions such as urging Benue people to “negotiate for peace” or “learn to live with their neighbours,” which, according to him, dangerously downplay the scale and intent of the attacks.
“Wrong diagnosis will always lead to wrong treatment,” Ayatse emphasized. “What we are dealing with here in Benue is far more sinister than ordinary communal disagreements — it is war. These are well-coordinated assaults by herder-terrorists and bandits aimed at forcefully taking over ancestral lands.”
The traditional ruler’s comments added a weighty traditional voice to the call for a national rethink on how the security situation in Benue is characterized and addressed. His remarks followed President Tinubu’s strong rebuke of security agencies over the failure to arrest perpetrators of the latest massacre, which claimed over 200 lives in Yelewata, Guma Local Government Area.
President Tinubu, in response, had pledged to work with Benue leaders and invest in lasting peace initiatives to end the years of bloodshed in the state.
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