The Senate has expressed deep frustration over the escalating security crisis in the country, declaring it is “tired of mourning” following the massacre in Yelwata, Benue State.

During a media briefing yesterday, Senate spokesperson, Yemi Adaramodu, lamented the incessant bloodshed, describing the situation as intolerable.

“From Plateau to Benue to Zamfara, we keep burying our people. The Senate is heartbroken. We are angry. We are tired of writing condolence letters,” he said.

This comes at a time when the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, expressed similar concerns, proposing the recruitment and training of trustworthy youths as community vigilantes to combat the persistent violence in the state.

Drawing from successful experiences in Borno State, Musa said these units would function under strict military supervision to protect communities from further attacks.

He made the recommendation yesterday during a strategic meeting with traditional rulers in Makurdi, the Benue State capital. Emphasising the need for vigilance, he urged local leaders to discourage criminal activities within their communities, warning that sabotage or complicity would not be tolerated as military operations intensify.

Musa, who has been in Benue since Monday, hinted at a shift in operational strategies to address escalating threats. Benue, often called the “food basket of the nation”, has been under siege by suspected herdsmen, with attacks worsening in recent months.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is expected to visit Benue today and has instructed security agencies, including General Musa and Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun, to take decisive action against the violence. Both officials have toured affected areas and directed field commanders to revise their strategies, particularly in neighbouring Nasarawa State.

General Musa stressed the importance of local participation in security efforts, urging traditional rulers and communities to take ownership. “We can’t win this fight alone. Communities must be involved, traditional rulers must take ownership, and we must root out insiders giving information to attackers,” he said. “We’ll adapt our approach, work with faith leaders and community heads, and ensure these atrocities stop.”

Similarly, Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia dismissed residents’ calls for self-defence in response to the recent wave of attacks in the state, instead urging support for a stronger community policing framework.

During an interview on AIT News yesterday, Alia appealed for calmness and cautioned against emotional responses that could worsen the security situation.

“I should ‘carry,’ and I think that would make some very good common sense,” he said, referencing the idea of arming oneself. “But where you have people who just decide to work up sentiments and emotions attached to what is happening with us and within us, I think we’re rendering ourselves a bit more vulnerable. So, I wouldn’t advocate for self-defence.”

The governor reiterated his belief that community policing remains the most effective solution to Benue’s security challenges.

“I would encourage us all to keep calling for community policing because it’s the only way. It’s only people from within the state and the local government who would understand what is going on with them,” he stated.

Alia highlighted the complexity of the security crisis, pointing out that bandits and terrorists have adopted guerrilla tactics, making them harder to apprehend. “They come, hit, and go back. So we cannot identify them,” he said.

He also linked the escalating insecurity to internal conflicts within the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), citing a lack of unity as a contributing factor. “The non-cooperation of some so-called major stakeholders, the disunity and disharmony within the ruling APC camp in the state, is quite unfortunate,” he said, adding that some members remain disgruntled and unwilling to reconcile.

Alia noted that President Bola Tinubu has urged state APC leaders to resolve their differences to foster peace and development. He described the president’s call as timely, particularly given Benue’s long-standing conflict between farmers and herders.

For its part, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) endorsed the recent calls by General Christopher Musa, and the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi, for community-led self-defence initiatives to address the persistent killings in Benue.

HURIWA described the proposal as a practical, people-centred strategy to mitigate the mass killings that have devastated communities and displaced thousands of Nigerians. The group commended General Musa’s directive for the training of credible youths in Benue to serve as community vigilantes under military supervision, calling it a crucial step to support overstretched security operatives.

Drawing parallels with the success of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in Borno State, which helped dislodge insurgents, HURIWA urged that a similar model be adopted in Benue and other states facing existential security threats.

Despite multiple presidential directives, military deployments, and high-profile visits, the group noted that the violence in Benue persists. It argued that empowering communities to defend themselves within a framework of legality and human rights could provide the breakthrough needed to stem the killings.

HURIWA called on the Federal Government to formalise the CDS’s recommendation by creating a legal and operational framework to establish and regulate community defence outfits under military or police oversight. It stressed that such structures must prioritise discipline, intelligence gathering, and respect for human rights while ensuring accountability to civil authorities.

Also, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take decisive steps as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to end persistent killings and kidnappings in Benue, Plateau, and other parts of the country.

In a statement released yesterday, PFN President, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, described the situation in Benue as a national tragedy and called for urgent and effective federal intervention. He emphasised the need to reclaim territories reportedly seized by terrorists and restore them to their rightful owners.

“The PFN sympathises with the governor and people of Benue State over the relentless killings. We are deeply concerned about the alarming state of insecurity in the nation, with Benue being a critical flashpoint that has suffered for too long,” he said.

Bishop Oke criticised the current security structure, calling for a comprehensive overhaul. “The current security system has failed us. Killings are taking place across the country, and the carnage has been relentless. What is happening in Benue is not a case of two parties fighting; it is an invasion by illegally armed bandits seeking to displace and dominate indigenous communities,” he stated.

The PFN President condemned attacks on Internally Displaced Persons camps, calling them “heinous acts” against vulnerable citizens who should be under state protection. He added, “If any state deserves a declaration of emergency, it is Benue.”

While acknowledging President Tinubu’s recent directive for special security forces to deploy in Benue, Bishop Oke described the move as belated and insufficient. “It is not enough to visit as a ‘Mourner-in-Chief.’ The President must act with the full weight of his office and protect the lives and land of the Benue people. Treating this as internal conflict is misleading and dangerous,” he said.

Bishop Oke extended his concerns to Plateau, Taraba, and other regions facing similar crises, urging the Federal Government to restore peace and security across affected areas. “The Federal Government owes Nigerians a duty to restore peace and security. We believe President Tinubu has the capacity to handle the situation if he acts boldly and decisively,” he emphasised.

He concluded by calling for impartial leadership in the security sector. “We cannot continue to ask the cat to watch over the meat. The time has come to place the right people in charge of protecting Nigerians,” he said.

The PFN reiterated its prayers for the people of Benue, Plateau, and the entire nation while urging the presidency to take swift and genuine action.

Relatedly, the President of the Centre for Change, Dr Joe Odumakin, has described the violence in Benue State as a damning indictment of the Nigerian military and other security agencies, given the protracted nature of the crisis in the region and neighbouring states.

In a statement, Odumakin lamented the government’s inability to address the crisis, calling it a clear manifestation of state failure. “We are convinced that the government’s inability to deal with this looming anarchy signals a direct manifestation of state failure,” she said.

Odumakin urged the federal and state governments to identify and prosecute those responsible for what she termed a “genocidal campaign” in Benue. She warned against politicising the crisis, stressing that such actions could trivialise its severity and distract from the urgent need to end the violence.

“This is not the time for politicking as this could have the tendency to trivialise the gravity of the current situation and inundate our consciousness with inanities which would eventually deflect our focus from the primary objective of halting this horrifying saga,” she stated.

She called on all levels of government to develop a permanent solution to the violence that has plagued Benue and the nation in recent years. Highlighting the constitutional responsibility of the government to protect its citizens, Odumakin emphasised the need for decisive action to restore peace.

In her appeal to the people of Benue, Odumakin encouraged them to support security agencies in combating the perpetrators of the violence. “We call on the people of Benue State to rise to the occasion by assisting the relevant security agencies in whatever way they can in order to defeat these criminals and agents of darkness,” she added.

In a separate development, Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule paid a condolence visit to his Benue counterpart, Governor Hyacinth Alia, and announced a N150 million relief package for those displaced by the recent attacks in Yelwata.