The impromptu visit of President Bola Tinubu to Benue State, to commiserate with the people over the cruel massacre of more than 200 defenceless citizens in the state will be significant and meaningful, only if it leads to the capture of the killers. Such killings of innocent people in Benue and other places have become all too frequent and regular, with relevant authorities making no more than lamentations and empty promises to bring culprits to book. It is time for urgent, sincere, potent, and sustainable action against the madness of terrorist and genocidal attacks on hapless communities by a group or groups of criminals. Those behind them should be fished out and dealt with. The wanton destruction of human life thrives because nobody is being punished for the crime.

In the evening of Friday June 13, 2025, Benue State suffered another round of violence perpetrated by terrorists that reportedly claimed about 200 lives. The terrorists invaded Yelewata town in Guma Local Council and killed the residents in a cruel manner and burned their homes. They targeted internally displaced families, set fire to their buildings as the people slept and attacked with machetes anyone who tried to flee. The displaced families were in buildings repurposed as temporary accommodation for them at the market square in Yelewata, near Makurdi the state capital when the terrorists stormed the place. In a first-hand report given to the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a clergy said that earlier in the same evening, police had repelled the attackers as they tried to storm the St. Joseph’s Church in Yelewata where up to 700 displaced people lay sleeping. Later the criminals stormed the market square where, for hours, they used fuel to set fire to the doors of another group of displaced persons’ accommodation before opening fire in the area where about 500 people were asleep. It was a marked atrocity on innocent Nigerians, women and children inclusive.

The head of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of the Vatican City, Pope Leo XIV described the attack as a ‘terrible massacre’ perpetrated with ‘extreme cruelty’. The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa who was at the scene of the incident to assess the situation described the attacks as madness and said security operatives suspected that some individuals within the communities gave vital information to the terrorists. The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun said it was an attack on the sovereignty and integrity of Nigeria.

At the scene of the incident, Gen. Musa said: ‘We always receive information that these attackers are coming from across the borders. Wherever they are coming from, we will go after them. We must not wait for them to strike first.’’ He disclosed plan to visit Nasarawa State to strengthen border security coordination which he described as crucial to curbing cross-border attacks. Some questions can be asked: with the success with which killings in Benue had been carried out before the latest one, should it just be occurring to the military, which depends largely on intelligence and training in performing its tasks, that there could be insiders in the communities giving information to attackers?

By the use of the word ‘always’, Gen. Musa revealed that the military had severally been informed about the attackers coming from outside the country. What did the military do with the information it got? Should it be after the massacre that it would be deemed necessary to visit Nasarawa to strengthen border security with a view to preventing the attackers from entering Nigeria again? It is akin to getting notice of the attack and not doing anything to prevent it. What a country! The police that reportedly repelled the attackers at St. Joseph’s Church in Yalewata could not do the same thing when the same terrorists had a field day killing another group of displaced persons, old and young, at the market square in the same town in the same evening! We agree with Egbetokun that it was an attack on the sovereignty of Nigeria. But can he say that security operatives gave the violence the serious attention it deserved? After many Benue families had been wiped out, security agencies were talking about plan to deploy more troops and equipment. Were these not supposed to have happened since the terrorists started holding Benue people hostage with frequent attacks?

Similarly, the response of the presidency fell short of the expectation of Nigerians. The gory incident happened on June 13. President Bola Tinubu did not visit Benue until June 18, only to instruct the service chiefs to enforce his ‘earlier directive’ aimed at achieving lasting peace and security in Benue. Nigerians believe that if the ‘earlier directive’ had been carried out, probably many of the lives lost could have been saved. The citizens are aware that some top military chiefs were asked to relocate to Benue. Did they do so? Those who visited the state left after a few hours, indicating that they themselves did not consider their lives safe in Benue.

President Tinubu asked Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia to lead the process of dialogue and reconciliation that will bring peace to Benue. Who will Alia dialogue with; the attackers that the military said are coming from outside the country? As commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, it would not have been out of place for President Tinubu to have prolonged his stay in Benue to enable him personally chair the dialogue and ensure that peace is achieved.

Nigerians now see the fight against terrorists in the country as a big business fetching billions of naira for many of those who are saddled with the task of ending the menace while the country bleeds. The citizens believe that security operatives and institutions have compromised. They believe that security personnel in collaboration with some political office holders are feeding fat on the taxpayers’ money meant to prosecute the war against the criminals. The perceived corruption in the anti-insurgency fight is now the real problem not lack of capacity by the security agencies to obliterate the hoodlums. Trillions of naira has been spent with little to show for it. It calls for a probe. The government must review its handling of the anti-terrorism fight with a view to making it effective to curb the shedding of innocent blood and save Nigeria from ridicule and annihilation.