APC defended Tinubu’s neutrality in the midst of the Benue Murder

The National Secretary of the Congress of All Progressive (APC), Senator Ajibola Basiru, has defended the attitude of the President Ahmed Tinubu about the ongoing crisis in the Benue state, which states that the President must remain neutral and act as a united national leader.

Speaking during the interview with Brief Morning, a television program channel aired Friday, Basiru responded to criticism that benefits the new president’s visit to the state of the benue after a series of deadly attacks by the alleged shepherds who have killed hundreds of people and thousands of neglected people.

“As a statesman, you do not expect the president to side with anyone in conflict,” Basiru said. “He should have a consideration that is impartial about this problem and can collect various state actors to overcome various challenges.”

The visit of President Tinubu to Makurdi, the capital of the state of Benue, on June 18, 2025, came after increasing pressure from civil society groups and opposition figures for their silence and inhibition. The attacks, especially the latest on Yelwata, have triggered national anger. Sources of government reported 59 deaths in Yelwata attacks, while groups of rights insisted on tolls that could actually be as high as 200.

Basiru urged the public not to politicize the visit, describing it as a step towards healing and dialogue. He noted that the President gave a vote to local concern by allowing traditional rulers, Tor Tiv V, James Ayatse, to openly express the complaints of his people.

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“The fact that the president provides an opportunity for Tor Tiv to provide an address, which is now said by the commentators to the current concern, has validated the fact that a platform was created by the President’s visit,” he said.

While some people accuse the federal government of bias in handling the conflict of farmers-submitting in the benue, a basket of northern northern northern zone of Nigeria, Basiru pushed back to such satire, saying that Tinubu remained committed to all Nigerians, regardless of territory or ethnicity.

“The president is a disconnected Nigerian. He did not go to the benue to choose parties between the North or South. He went there to overcome the fundamental concerns about the protection of life and property,” said the APC chief. “And in words, people’s lives are more valuable than property problems, which indicate cows.”

Benue has long been the center of clashes of violence between the agricultural community dominated by Christianity and most of the Muslim Nomaden Shepherd. While some linking the crisis with ethnic tensions and competition on land and water, traditional leaders in the state have described attacks in far more striking terms.

In his speech during Tinubu’s visit, Tor Tiv did not make small talk, calling violence as “Full Scale Genocide Invasion, which was calculated, well planned, and a full genocide campaign by terrorists and bandits who fed.”

In just two months, more than 160 people have been killed in various communities in Benue. The scale of violence attracted international criticism earlier this week, with Pope Leo XIV described the massacre as “terrible” and urged the intervention and urgent humanitarian justice.