Key political stakeholders and traditional rulers gathered at the Benue State Government House banquet hall in Makurdi, the state capital, and Yelewata, the site of last Friday’s massacre, where President Bola Tinubu will visit today.
Wednesday’s visit is aimed at engaging with community leaders to discuss the ongoing communal violence, which has claimed over 500 deaths in 2025 alone.
When he arrives, the President will go to Yelewata in the Guma Local Government Area, the site of the most recent attack, which claimed over 100 lives.
Tinubu plans to meet with victims’ relatives, displaced persons, and community leaders who have been directly impacted by the violence.
From Yelewata, the president will travel to the hospital, where numerous people injured in the incident are being treated.
He would thereafter go to the Benue State Government House Banquet Hall in Makurdi to preside over a town hall gathering with key stakeholders.
Key national and state-level figures are expected to attend, including governors, particularly from the North Central zone; the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; the ruling All Progressives Congress’s National Chairman, Dr. Umar Ganduje; and other figures from political, security, and traditional institutions.
Other guests include the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, a former Benue State Governor (1999-2007); Governor Samuel Ortom (2015-2023); APC National Working Committee members; and federal parliamentarians representing Benue’s afflicted communities.
Traditional rulers from several ethnic groups in Benue attend the gathering, as do the executive chairmen of the state’s 23 local government areas.
The Elders’ Council, members of the Benue State House of Assembly, local government party executives, the Benue State Executive Council, and other key religious and civil society groups are also in attendance.
Terrorists stormed Yelewata village in Guma LGA of Benue State late Friday, June 13, unleashing one of the deadliest assaults the state has seen in years.
According to Amnesty International and local officials, at least 100 people were dead, others are missing, and hundreds are suffering from gunshot and burn wounds when assailants set fire to their homes early Saturday morning.
Local police confirmed the raid but did not provide a final casualty tally, while emergency workers said many of the fatalities were internally displaced persons who had sought safety in the area following previous attacks.
The Benue State administration has initiated a manhunt, but villagers fear further reprisals as the rainy season begins, which is the peak period for contested grazing and planting.
