By Our Reporter
The paramount ruler of the Tiv nation, Tor Tiv V, James Ayatse, has urged President Bola Tinubu to acknowledge that the persistent violence in Benue State is not a result of farmer-herder conflicts, but a systematic campaign of land seizure through terror.
During a stakeholder meeting in Makurdi on Wednesday, Ayatse dismissed widespread narratives describing the crisis as communal or reprisal clashes. “This is not about farmers and herders. It is not a misunderstanding between neighbors. It is a coordinated, prolonged genocidal invasion by terrorist elements posing as herders,” he stated.
He criticized what he termed a “misdiagnosis” of the situation, stressing that mislabeling the crisis has hindered effective solutions. “When we misinterpret an illness, we apply the wrong remedy. This is not a local skirmish—it is war,” the monarch emphasized.
Ayatse called for clear federal intervention and the arrest of perpetrators, aligning with President Tinubu’s earlier directive for security chiefs to act swiftly.