Leaders of Benue Communities in the Diaspora have condemned recent remarks by Bayo Onanuga, the Special Assistant on Information and Strategy to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, where he described the incessant attacks and killings in the state as reprisal attacks and as a result of “farmer-herder conflicts.”
The group, in an open letter on Tuesday jointly signed by Professor Akaa D. Ayangeakaa representing the Tivs in the diaspora and Chief Edwin Ochai representing the Idoma community, wondered how the presidential spokesman could describe the mass killings in the state as mere farmer-herder clashes when even infants were killed without mercy by the assailants.
Reacting to the massacre in the Yelewata community in Guma Local Government Area on Saturday, June 14, where over 200 people were killed by suspected armed herders, the group expressed outrage over Onanuga’s comments, describing them as insensitive and an insult to the victims.
Part of the open letter reads:
“We condemn the statement of Mr. Bayo Onanuga in its entirety. This is not about farmers and herders exchanging grievances. It is not a communal clash. There have been no provocations from Benue communities that could justify the scale or frequency of the violence.
“What we witness are deliberate, organized, and targeted attacks on unarmed civilians. To call it anything less than genocide ignores the suffering of thousands and emboldens the perpetrators.
“Was the 7-month-old baby who was hacked with a hatchet and burned alive also a farmer? Were the infants who died while clinging to their mothers’ breasts part of a “farmers-herders conflict”?
“You label the slaughter of individuals in their sleep, in their own homes, a simple dispute between farmers and herders? That description is misleading and portrays grave injustice to the memory of the innocent.
“We were therefore shocked, insulted, and heartbroken by the recent press statement from the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, on June 15, 2025.
“These were executions. Whole families were murdered. Homes turned to ashes. Survivors face lifelong trauma.
“Astonishingly, the police personnel at the nearby police station were said to have been overwhelmed.
“Framing the Benue massacres as mere “reprisal attacks” in a “farmer-herder conflict” is not only inaccurate; it is also deeply offensive and disheartening.
“Labeling it otherwise trivializes the victims’ suffering and normalizes the actions of those uninterested in peace, but only in conquest.”
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