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Chief Peter Ameh, National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), former presidential candidate, and past National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), has issued a powerful condemnation of the Nigerian government’s handling of the deepening security crisis in the North Central region.

In a strongly worded statement titled “Worsening Security Challenges in North Central Nigeria: A Government in Denial,” Chief Ameh described the situation in the region—comprising states like Plateau, Benue, Kogi, and parts of Southern Kaduna—as nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe marked by massacres, mass displacement, and coordinated land grabs.

According to Chief Ameh, the violence plaguing the North Central region has claimed over 9,000 lives in Plateau and Benue States in the past two years alone, with thousands more displaced from their ancestral homes.

He criticized the Nigerian government for failing to confront the crisis with the seriousness it demands, accusing it of turning a blind eye to the destruction of lives and communities.

The statement paints a harrowing picture of a region in chaos, where armed militias—some of them foreign—have unleashed systematic violence under the guise of pastoralism, armed not with sticks or machetes, but with AK-47s and other military-grade weapons.

These are not isolated clashes between farmers and herders, he said, but a calculated campaign of territorial conquest and subjugation aimed at the indigenous peoples of the Middle Belt.

Chief Ameh rejected what he called the “sanitized” narrative often promoted by the international community and echoed by domestic actors, which reduces the crisis to resource-based conflict.

He insisted that while land disputes may occur, the scale, organization, and brutality of the attacks point to a far more sinister agenda. The displacement of entire communities, the razing of villages, and the occupation of ancestral lands by heavily armed invaders are, in his view, signs of an orchestrated effort to erase indigenous populations and replace them with new settlers.

Survivors’ testimonies, including one from a former villager who recounted how armed herders not only seized their land but built permanent structures on it, serve as chilling evidence of the extent of the crisis.

He condemned the federal government’s failure to respond adequately or even accurately characterize the nature of the conflict.

According to him, by refusing to label the violence as terrorism and by neglecting to take decisive action, Nigerian authorities have allowed impunity to flourish.

Armed assailants, he noted, now move freely with rifles, grazing cattle and occupying communities as if above the law. He questioned whether this inaction stems from incompetence or deliberate political calculations, either of which, he warned, constitute a betrayal of the government’s primary duty to protect its citizens.

He argued that this ongoing neglect sends a dangerous message—that the lives of North Central Nigerians are expendable.

Chief Ameh further decried the marginalization of the North Central region in national discourse, despite its strategic role as Nigeria’s food basket and its rich cultural diversity.

He warned that the continued destabilization of this region would have severe implications for national unity and economic stability. He called the government’s indifference not only a moral failure but a dangerous oversight that risks triggering broader unrest across the country.

Equally scathing was his criticism of the international community, which he accused of either misunderstanding or deliberately misrepresenting the crisis.

By continuing to frame the violence as a dispute between farmers and herders, international actors have, in his words, obscured the ethnic and territorial dimensions of the conflict, thereby enabling perpetrators to act without fear of global scrutiny or intervention. This mischaracterization, he said, shifts attention away from the urgent need for accountability and real security reforms.

Chief Ameh emphasized that meaningful peace in the region cannot be achieved unless the Nigerian government openly acknowledges the true scale and nature of the atrocities, commits substantial security resources to protect vulnerable communities, reclaims occupied territories, and dismantles the armed networks behind the violence.

He stressed that justice for the victims must not be treated as optional or politicized, but as an essential pillar for restoring peace. Moreover, he called for a commitment to rebuilding destroyed communities, resettling displaced populations, and resolving long-standing disputes over land and resources, which have been exploited by violent actors to justify aggression.

He concluded by asserting that the ongoing bloodshed in the North Central is a damning indictment of Nigeria’s current leadership and a grave reflection of how far the country has drifted from its obligations to its people.

He warned that until the government takes responsibility and acts with urgency, the region will continue to bleed, and Nigeria will edge closer to deeper instability.

Chief Ameh insisted that justice, security, and peace are not privileges but fundamental rights—non-negotiable entitlements owed to every citizen, especially those in the North Central who have borne the brunt of this national failure.

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