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The presidential candidate from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, had sharply criticized the President of the Tinubu Bola for failing to visit Yelwata, the Benue Community was destroyed by a deadly attack last Friday which killed the score and thousands of unspecified people.
Speaking at Sunrise Daily, a television program channel aired on Friday morning, Adebayo expressed disappointment over what he called the president’s inadequate response to the national tragedy.
President Tinubu had traveled to Benue on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, after the violence associated with the alleged killer shepherd. However, he limits his visit to Makurdi, the capital of the state, quoting “rain, floods and poor roads” as an excuse not to reach Yelwata, the Center for Massachers.
Adebayo rejected the explanation because it was unacceptable by a leader accused of protecting all citizens, especially at the time of the crisis. “He should have confirmed that it rains, coming to shine, he reached the attack, Yelwata, and he saw people,” Adebayo said. “He could not say, as the supreme commander, that there was a part of a country that could not be reached by him. People live there.”
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SDP candidates did not hold back their criticism of the tone and atmosphere of the President’s visit. He cursed what he described as the politicization of the opportunity, saying it did not have the appropriate calm for a place to mourn.
“Even during the Civil War, it would be the headline if 200 people were killed at once,” he said. “A visit to such a place must be serious. But what do we see? It looks like other political meetings. The disappearance is not there. The president should go there as a mourner. His language, body language, should all reflect empathy and sadness.”
The attack on Yelwata, which occurred last night on Friday, resulted in a dozen death of the population and more than 3,000 transfer. While the sources of the government placed the death toll at the age of 59, civil society groups had reported that the number could be as high as 200.
The scale of violence has attracted not only national anger but also international criticism. Pope Leo Xiv issued a statement that said the massacre was “terrible” and urged immediately for such bloodshed.
