The paramount ruler of the Tiv nation, Tor Tiv, His Royal Majesty James Ortese Iorzua Ayatse, has dismissed claims that the persistent violence in Benue State is a farmers-herders crisis or mere communal clashes, describing it instead as a calculated campaign of genocide and land grabbing by herders.
The monarch made the assertion on Wednesday while addressing President Bola Tinubu during a stakeholders’ meeting held in Makurdi, the state capital.
Ayatse accused some quarters of deliberately misrepresenting the nature of the conflict in the state, thereby misleading the public into believing it is a traditional dispute between farmers and herders.
“We have suffered from the misconception and deliberate misrepresentation of the crisis in Benue State. This is not a farmers-herders crisis, neither is it communal clashes or reprisal attacks,” the monarch stated.
He warned that such misinformation has led to misguided suggestions for tolerance, negotiations, and peaceful co-existence, which fail to address the real threat faced by the people of the state.
“What we are dealing with in Benue is a calculated, well-planned, genocidal land grabbing campaign by herder terrorists and bandits. This has been ongoing for decades and is worsening by the day,” he emphasized.
President Tinubu’s visit to Makurdi comes in the wake of renewed attacks by suspected herders on Yelewata in Guma Local Government Area, where over 200 residents were reportedly killed. The latest massacre has heightened tensions in the state and triggered widespread calls for urgent federal intervention.
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