A flood of condemnation has greeted calls by Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammed Saad Abubakar and several others for investigation and arrest of persons complicit in the recent killing in Benue State of a chieftain of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN). Alhaji Ardo Risku, Benue State Chairman of the association, was ambushed and shot dead alongside two others after leaving the venue of a peace meeting in Ohimini Local Government of Benue State. Sen. George Akume, SGF, Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia as well as several others had, in the wake of the development, made similar calls. But in responses to a Sahara Reporters' publication on such calls, thousands of people condemned the calls, describing them as uncalled for and unfair. Against the background of deadly attacks by Fulani herdsmen across the country, such responses hardly come as a surprise. The Mandate recalls that Benue State just recently marked the one year anniversary of the tragedy in Yelwata where more than two hundred persons including women, children as well as the elderly and the infirm, were brutally murdered in their sleep last June 2025. The development has heightened tension in Benue State as reprisal attacks are widely expected in the Ohimini axis. A legal practitioner, Oscar Aorabee has warned the Benue State Government against admitting complicity in Ardo's was killing, recalling a 2001 mistake by then Governor Akume which he said led to the military invasion of Zaki Biam and its surroundings in 2001.

Posted: 2months ago

Author: Editor in Chief

Current date: 14 August 2026