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ABUJA — Young Progressives Party (YPP) presidential hopeful for the 2027 general election, Arc. Dr. Peter Adole Agada, has launched a scathing attack on the Federal Government over the recent killings in Benue State, urging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately overhaul Nigeria’s security architecture and restore what he described as a nation sliding into “a republic of bloodshed.”
In a strongly worded statement issued on Wednesday, Agada, who is also the Global Convener of The Movement Nigeria (TMN), condemned the recent massacre in Akpachi and Otukpo-Nobi communities of Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State, insisting that the government’s response to recurring attacks has been inadequate and largely ceremonial.
He accused the Tinubu administration of responding to mass killings with “funeral delegations, ephemeral consolation of genocide victims and empty ceremonial promises of security,” instead of implementing decisive measures capable of ending the wave of violent attacks across the country.
According to Agada, the Federal Government must urgently transform Nigeria’s security system into a technologically driven, intelligence-based operation capable of tracking, arresting and prosecuting armed militias, terrorists, kidnappers, bandits and their collaborators.
He argued that Nigeria possesses sufficient financial resources to build such a modern security framework, maintaining that the country’s greatest challenge is not funding but “the political will, sincerity and transparency” required to effectively deploy available resources.
The YPP presidential hopeful explained that he delayed issuing a public reaction to the Benue killings to allow his organisation, The Movement Nigeria, to conduct independent investigations and verify casualty figures through government sources, eyewitnesses, emergency responders and field operatives deployed to the affected communities.
Based on findings from the group’s investigation, Agada disputed the official casualty figure of 18 released by government authorities, claiming that more than 50 persons—including women, children, infants and elderly residents—were killed during the attack, while many others sustained severe injuries and hundreds were displaced.
He further alleged that one family of nine, including a two-year-old child, was completely wiped out during the assault by suspected armed Fulani militia.
Expressing sympathy with the bereaved families and displaced victims, Agada extended condolences to residents of Akpachi and Otukpo-Nobi communities, describing the attacks as another chapter in what he called recurring pogroms across Benue, Plateau and other parts of Nigeria’s Middle Belt.
He lamented that repeated attacks on rural communities have continued with little accountability for perpetrators despite huge annual security allocations by successive governments.
The former presidential aspirant also cited research by The Movement Nigeria, claiming that over 50,000 Nigerians were killed in documented terrorist attacks between 2016 and 2021, while another 51,000 reportedly died from violent crimes including kidnapping, armed robbery, rape, police brutality and other forms of extra-judicial killings.
According to him, the combined figures indicate that an average of 57 Nigerians lose their lives daily to violent incidents, a statistic he compared with casualty figures recorded during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war to illustrate what he described as the severity of Nigeria’s internal security crisis.
Agada further claimed that approximately 70 per cent of violent killings in the country occur within the North Central and Middle Belt regions, warning that the continued bloodshed threatens national unity, economic development and constitutional governance.
Calling on governments at all levels to treat the protection of lives and property as their foremost constitutional obligation, he urged security agencies to ensure that those responsible for the Otukpo killings are identified, apprehended and prosecuted without delay.
He appealed to President Tinubu to make the latest Benue massacre “the last of its kind” by embracing intelligence-led policing, deploying advanced digital surveillance technologies and dismantling criminal networks operating across the country.
“The administration must stop being a government of funeral delegations, ephemeral consolation of genocide victims and empty ceremonial promises of security, and rise to restore Nigeria from being a republic of bloodshed to one of law, order, peace, opportunity and prosperity,” Agada declared.
He maintained that only decisive political leadership, backed by modern security infrastructure and transparent implementation of security policies, would restore public confidence and end the cycle of violence that has plagued many parts of Nigeria.
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