Benue people have been battling insurgency for decades, but the last strike was a vampire scene. The time was 10:45 pm, Friday, June 13. Families escaped from the foreboding rain that had begun, to take shelter in their homes. Some even ate their supper and wished each other good night. However, the cracks of gunshots from the only police station in Yelewata soon after indicated that it was not a good night.
Dooga, a farmer in Yelewata, stepped out of his house to inquire about the gunshots. They were not only from the police station but sounds of war on hundreds of motorbikes carrying armed herders who had surrounded the community, chanting religious voodoo in Northern dialects. They set houses ablaze and stood by with machetes and AK47s and AK49s, ready to destroy whosoever escaped from the burning sheets of corrugated iron or the hut’s thatched roofs. Old men and women, teenagers and youths, children and toddlers – none was spared. Yelewata was helpless and unarmed.
When light flickered in the morning, the community was littered with corpses, lynched and bathed in congealed cold blood. The few who escaped carried gashes. There was no one to cry within the community. Most women were killed, most children slaughtered, and the few that escaped the massacre were found dumfounded, emotionally bleeding. The community became a cemetery of corpses. The press, especially TV and radio, in an attempt to suppress the news, underreported the pogrom until VDM projected the images to the world.
The people of Benue cried. The good people of Nigeria mourned. Governor Alia grieved, but many felt it was not enough. I was one among such. We called him names and insulted him for calling off a peaceful protest and asking the people of Benue to welcome Mr. President, who cancelled his initial visit to Kaduna to pay the people of Benue a condolence visit.
My perspective changed when I stepped into a writer’s position to brainstorm:
1. The governor went into governance with a different ideological mindset. His passion matched closely that of the late Mr. Aper Aku, the first civilian governor, who selflessly served the state. The small developments in the state were orchestrated by the late governor; however, his regime was abruptly truncated by the junta regime of Buhari. Father Alia, the current elected governor, has started to rebuild and revamp the carcasses that Mr. Aper Aku left behind, forty-six years ago.
2. I watched ‘Politics Today’ on Channel Television, where a House of Representatives member representing Kwande and Ushongo, Terseer Ugbor, threw affray at the governor, defending the security agencies over the insecurity in the state. It was not a taste of candor, nor was it wisdom. His constituencies are backward and vulnerable, targets of attacks from herders, and he chose to stand against the Chief Security Officer of the state. This, perhaps, is a tip of an iceberg.
3. Revd. Father Alia is depending on the masses of the state who massively voted for him, plus his eminent traditional rulers headed by His Royal Highness, James Ayatse, to make Benue a peaceful haven. According to sources, the state governor had been left alone since he refused to split the federal allocation among the political gladiators and chose to convert the resources to better the lots of the impoverished state.
4. The priest went further to reject the temptation of fighting his principal, President Ahmed Tinubu. Previous tantrum to the presidency by previous government took us where we are. Collaboration and peaceful conversation with the presidency will not be a bad option to consider. No wonder the president had ordered the nation’s security chiefs and the Inspector General to smoke out armed herders and arrest the killers. For this singular act, the president and the governor must be held in utmost deference, with the trust that these orders are obeyed to the letter. If Father Alia is distracted to hold the tail of the lion, Benue will lose everything.
5. The political representations in Benue must acknowledge Revd. Fr. Hyacinth Alia as the number one citizen of the state and rally around him to create a watertight security architecture like the one in Lagos, Ogun, and the current Kaduna state. Mr. President has declared his support. We must support its implantation to the fullest. Enough is enough of vampire scenes! If we lose it now, political gladiators will celebrate soon and drain the blood of Benue State in perpetuity.
By Vandefan Fidelis Aondongu.