For the people of Benue State, the eight-year Muhammadu Buhari administration represents a sad chapter in their history, one that will continue to haunt them for years to come, no thanks to the orgy of wantom killings that defined that era. For them, it was a period that can only be described as the years of the locust.

Although the Benue killings predated the Buhari regime, they reached a shocking climax that eclipsed the bloodletting of years past as rampaging killer herdsmen ferociously descended on hapless farmers, taking no prisoners. But while this orgy of killings took place, government whose constitutional responsibility is to protect life and property, looked unconcernedly.

While Benue State became a killing field, the Federal Government’s usual, puerile response was to describe the attacks as the tragic outcomes of herders/farmers clashes.

And to underline the political undertones of the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Federal Government position on this development, the Samuel Ortom-led Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, government in the state was routinely blamed for instigating and fuelling the clashes based on its decision to ban open grazing in the state.

So, rather than abate, following public outcry, the attacks intensified. In fact, no day passed without the news media reporting fresh attacks in Benue with the attendant high death tolls. Life became for the average Benue person, in the words of Thomas Hobbes, nasty, brutish and short.

So, the advent of the President Bola Tinubu administration must have been a welcome development to Benue people. With a new governor elected on the platform of the ruling party at the federal level, the people had envisaged a quick end to the rampant attacks and killings in their state.

But unfortunately, that has not been the case. Reports since early last year indicate that Benue State is still under siege with herdsmen carrying out attacks as usual with little or no response from security agents.

For instance, between January 9, 2024 and December 25, 2024, reported cases of herdsmen incursions in Benue communities were about 46. The said attacks left over 379 persons dead. And of this number five were killed during the Easter festivities in Apa LGA and 17 on Christmas Day in Kwande.

During the period, five abduction cases by armed herdsmen were recorded in Orokam Ogbadigbo, Gwer West, Makurdi and Otukpo LGAs.

The epicentre of armed herdsmen activities during the said period were communities in Logo, Ogbadigbo, Otukpo, Apa, Agatu, Guma, Kwande, Gwer East, Gwer West, Makurdi and Katsina/Ala local government areas, LGAs, of the state.

A few of the attacks, particularly those that occurred around the Logo, Katsina-Ala axis of the state, were carried out in connivance with local bandits.

Apart from the killings resulting from the attacks, thousands of Benue people were displaced from their homes, with most of them presently living in internally displaced persons, IDPs, camps. According to the state governor, Hyacinth Alia, the state currently shelters over 500,182 IDPs, while lamenting the humanitarian challenges this poses to the state.

The worsening Insecurity in Benue demands an urgent response from the Federal Government, the state government and relevant security agencies.

While we commend the recently launched 5,000 man Benue Civil Protection Guards, we hope it would, through the cooperation of the Federal Government, work closely with the conventional security agencies in the state to check the activities of the marauding herdsmen. (Vanguard Editorial)