On that harrowing Friday night/Saturday morning, residents of the town woke to the deafening crackle of gunfire, the glow of burning homes/stores and the horrifying cries of children being hacked, shot or burnt alive by suspected armed herdsmen.
By the break of dawn on Saturday, May 14, over 300 lives had been cut short, hundreds of homes reduced to ashes and the town’s once-thriving heartbeat silenced by grief.
More than 300 lives were lost that night, in what survivors and residents now describe as the single deadliest massacre in Benue’s recent history
And for a community known for nothing but quiet labour on their ancestral farmlands, this carnage was not just shocking, it was soul-shattering.
"It was like a war. In my 57 years on earth, I’ve never witnessed this. I escaped with my third son. My wife and other children were not so lucky. My world ended that Friday night,” said Elder Amos, his voice trembling as he spoke with our correspondent.
The attack, which many survivors believed was a planned and coordinated onslaught, came amid rising tension between local Benue farmers and herders operating within the region.
Just weeks earlier, traditional rulers across Tiv and Idoma lands had issued a directive asking all herders to vacate their lands by the end of May due to recurring violence and destruction of farmlands.
That ultimatum was never enforced and the consequences became painfully clear in Yelewata.
Before the Yelewata incident, there were similar attacks on other communities like Edikwu-Ankpali in Apa as well as the Tyoshin community in Naka, Gwer East LGA, where scores of persons were hacked to death.
The figures are not just numbers; each name carries a story, a family, a legacy cut short.
Prominent among the victims of the Yelewata attack was Pharmacist Matthew Iormba, a brilliant young man who had once dreamt of becoming a medical doctor.
Denied admission to study medicine twice despite his academic excellence, he settled for Pharmacy and graduated with distinction.
He had just returned home the previous night to his family to inform them that he had graduated after his housemanship in Kano, only to be burnt alive during the attack.
Even now, days after the attack, charred remains of bodies lie unburied. Smoke still rises from crumbled rooftops.
If there is anyone who is yet to recover from the shock of the deadly attack, it is Franc Utoo, a lawyer-cum-politician and native of Yelewata, who lost over 33 members of his extended family and more than 50 of his political supporters.
Utoo gave a chilling and shocking account of what really happened to Dailypost.
According to him, residents of the community were already aware of the planned attack and decided to relocate from their homes at night to camp at various places such as schools, market square and churches within Yelewata town.
“This thing is straightforward. Those guys have started plotting the attack before that day.
We were aware of the plot that they might invade our town from Obi, Doma or Keana LGAs in Nasarawa State through Giza or Kadarko. So we got intelligence about what was going to happen.
“We were able to tell the law enforcement agents. But of course, nothing happened. So when they came that day, they came at night around 10pm. That’s on June 13.
It was raining that day. So they were targeting the RCM Primary School Yelewata, because the school housed about a thousand of our people.
You know why the number is high? Every evening, the people leave their homes to come and sleep in the primary school and the church.
And then others from the neighboring villages, adjoining villages, come to sleep in the stores and in the market.
That’s why, if you see the visuals of the burnt stores, you see a lot of skulls. Because some people may be wondering why a lot of people were in a store?
That is because people leave their homes in the evening for fear of this attack. To sleep in the store so they can go back in the morning.
Nobody is safe in that town. That is why if your house is just 20 or 30 meters away from the road, you dare not sleep in the house. Not to talk of those who are like 500 meters or one kilometer away from the road.
So, when those guys came that day, they concentrated on areas where the population was high, that is, the primary school, the church and the market.
But at that point, they were repelled by our boys and the security agents. So in the course of this, we didn’t know that these guys had divided themselves into groups.
They diverted our attention to the primary school and the church. The other groups went to the Yelewata New Market.”
Official accounts of the tragedy have added insult to the community’s wounds. While Governor Hyacinth Alia announced, following a panel report, that only 59 people died, local sources rejected this.
By the break of dawn on Saturday, May 14, over 300 lives had been cut short, hundreds of homes reduced to ashes and the town’s once-thriving heartbeat silenced by grief.
More than 300 lives were lost that night, in what survivors and residents now describe as the single deadliest massacre in Benue’s recent history
And for a community known for nothing but quiet labour on their ancestral farmlands, this carnage was not just shocking, it was soul-shattering.
"It was like a war. In my 57 years on earth, I’ve never witnessed this. I escaped with my third son. My wife and other children were not so lucky. My world ended that Friday night,” said Elder Amos, his voice trembling as he spoke with our correspondent.
The attack, which many survivors believed was a planned and coordinated onslaught, came amid rising tension between local Benue farmers and herders operating within the region.
Just weeks earlier, traditional rulers across Tiv and Idoma lands had issued a directive asking all herders to vacate their lands by the end of May due to recurring violence and destruction of farmlands.
That ultimatum was never enforced and the consequences became painfully clear in Yelewata.
Before the Yelewata incident, there were similar attacks on other communities like Edikwu-Ankpali in Apa as well as the Tyoshin community in Naka, Gwer East LGA, where scores of persons were hacked to death.
The figures are not just numbers; each name carries a story, a family, a legacy cut short.
Prominent among the victims of the Yelewata attack was Pharmacist Matthew Iormba, a brilliant young man who had once dreamt of becoming a medical doctor.
Denied admission to study medicine twice despite his academic excellence, he settled for Pharmacy and graduated with distinction.
He had just returned home the previous night to his family to inform them that he had graduated after his housemanship in Kano, only to be burnt alive during the attack.
Even now, days after the attack, charred remains of bodies lie unburied. Smoke still rises from crumbled rooftops.
If there is anyone who is yet to recover from the shock of the deadly attack, it is Franc Utoo, a lawyer-cum-politician and native of Yelewata, who lost over 33 members of his extended family and more than 50 of his political supporters.
Utoo gave a chilling and shocking account of what really happened to Dailypost.
According to him, residents of the community were already aware of the planned attack and decided to relocate from their homes at night to camp at various places such as schools, market square and churches within Yelewata town.
“This thing is straightforward. Those guys have started plotting the attack before that day.
We were aware of the plot that they might invade our town from Obi, Doma or Keana LGAs in Nasarawa State through Giza or Kadarko. So we got intelligence about what was going to happen.
“We were able to tell the law enforcement agents. But of course, nothing happened. So when they came that day, they came at night around 10pm. That’s on June 13.
It was raining that day. So they were targeting the RCM Primary School Yelewata, because the school housed about a thousand of our people.
You know why the number is high? Every evening, the people leave their homes to come and sleep in the primary school and the church.
And then others from the neighboring villages, adjoining villages, come to sleep in the stores and in the market.
That’s why, if you see the visuals of the burnt stores, you see a lot of skulls. Because some people may be wondering why a lot of people were in a store?
That is because people leave their homes in the evening for fear of this attack. To sleep in the store so they can go back in the morning.
Nobody is safe in that town. That is why if your house is just 20 or 30 meters away from the road, you dare not sleep in the house. Not to talk of those who are like 500 meters or one kilometer away from the road.
So, when those guys came that day, they concentrated on areas where the population was high, that is, the primary school, the church and the market.
But at that point, they were repelled by our boys and the security agents. So in the course of this, we didn’t know that these guys had divided themselves into groups.
They diverted our attention to the primary school and the church. The other groups went to the Yelewata New Market.”
Official accounts of the tragedy have added insult to the community’s wounds. While Governor Hyacinth Alia announced, following a panel report, that only 59 people died, local sources rejected this.
Many said his narrative is false and dangerous, accusing the state government of deliberately underreporting the attack.
“We lost over 300 people. Children were burnt to ashes. In some places, entire families were wiped out.
“If anyone tells you it’s 59, they’re lying. A family here lost over 40 members alone,” Samson, a youth leader in Daudu said.
Dailypost
God we need your help on what is going on.
ReplyDeleteThe President is even calling for reconciliation.....People threatening the security of the country....Who reconciles with criminals....My Benue people please defend yourself, anything from this government take it with a grain of salt....
DeleteTerrible!
DeleteThis is really sad, this is war ongoing in Benue. The Nigerian Govt needs to step in immediately.
ReplyDeleteMay the souls of the lost ones rest in peace.
Kai!
ReplyDeleteThis is so painful
Mehn ! This is terrible.
ReplyDeleteTo think that Yelwata is by the road side and less than 30mins drive from the state capital, there's no week that passes without news of herdsmen attacking interior villages, killing the villagers and destroying their farmlands.
ReplyDeleteShame on Alia, the people thought he was going to do better being a Catholic priest but he us even worse.
I was crying that Samuel ortom was incompetent not knowing that the main definition of incompetency was still warming up.
DeleteBig Shame on him!! People should wake up & stop being religiously sentimental....Pastor na title no be character.....
DeleteThe shame of a man! Empty promises he made before he was made governor.
Delete😭😭😭😭😭 It will never be well with these evil people and their supporters
ReplyDeleteBut why do they always attack farmers??
ReplyDeleteI'm from Benue..my friend was travelling last week and saw cattle grazing on some farmland, eating maize that was growing. Fulani just want you to be quiet and not say anything. Benue people are farmers take your cattle to graze in Sambisa.
DeleteMy sincere condolences to the very peaceful people of Benue state.
ReplyDeleteThis saddens my heart.
I beseech Mr President to look into this matter and make certain that the attackers face full wrath of the law.
You lost me at “cry of children being hacked”! 😭😭💔💔
ReplyDeleteIn a sane and truly just country, the President would have stepped down by now.
ReplyDeleteThe primary duty of any government is to protect the lives and security of its people a right that is both fundamental and God-given. Sadly, this administration has failed woefully in that duty.
To those who have chosen to play politics with the blood and lives of innocent citizens, may divine justice visit you. You may escape human accountability, but you cannot escape the judgment of God. May your conscience be tormented, and unless you repent, may your generation never know peace. Let the weight of every innocent soul lost cry out against you, even unto a thousand generations if Christ tarries.
This is really serious, we have government and all these are happening, I think it's high time Benue people started defending themselves with whatever they can lay their hands on, because I don't think government is ready or willing to defend and rescue them, all they do is sympathize with them and give them empty promises.
ReplyDeleteDid you hear of the Taraba state farmer that was sentenced to death for killing the herdsmen that attacked him on his farm?
DeleteReally Ms Aboki, what? We're in trouble oh😢😳
DeleteI wept when I saw the video of burnt human beings.. I curse everybody involved in the killing , all there generations will never know peace, they will all keep dieing like flies till all there generations are all wiped out. And may all the dead rest in peace 🕊️
ReplyDeleteReading this alone is heartbreaking,may God comfort this community and may the anger of the locate these evil doers
ReplyDeleteThis is sad 😔
ReplyDeleteWhy is the government of that state still allowing herders to remain there? These people never take action because these things don't affect them directly.
ReplyDeleteThis is too much, what is happening in Benue state for God's sake. God please help us in this country.
ReplyDeleteGovernor Alia has failed his people. If he has any conscience, he should resign because he is not fit to govern the state.
ReplyDeleteMy condolences to the people of Yelwata and the entire people of Benue State.
Oh Lord
ReplyDeleteThis is Really Painful o
This is too sad
ReplyDeleteChai!!! This is sad 😔
ReplyDeleteMay the deceased souls rest in peace.
This is really sad. Benue governor is such a disappointment.
ReplyDeleteI can bet you no arrest has been made. So these herdsmen are so invisible they can't be found?
The one that happened in uromi, there were calls from all over, threatening and saying all manner of nonsense. Where are those people now? They've suddenly gone dumb?
And they had the audacity to go after those people in Edo that took the protection of their people seriously!
ReplyDeleteReally a sorry case, even children burnt to death? Oh my goodness. We don't have government at all.
ReplyDeleteThis is so sad!
ReplyDelete#endbenuekilligs
The country called Nigeria is gone
ReplyDeleteThis is disheartening.
ReplyDeleteStella Maris Baby