Peter Obi Reacts To Fresh Killings In Benue Says-‘We Can’t Continue This Path’

The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress in the 2027 election, Peter Obi, has condemned the latest attack in Benue State, which claimed the lives of at least 11 people, including four police officers.

Obi, in a statement issued on Saturday, described the killings in Ayilamo community, Logo Local Government Area of the state, as another painful reminder of the worsening insecurity confronting Nigerians.

He expressed sympathy with the families of the victims and residents of Logo, saying the loss of innocent lives to violence had become difficult to comprehend.

The former Anambra State governor recalled that he had attempted to visit Benue to sympathise with families affected by the deadly attack in Yelwata, but his journey was truncated following road blockage by some youths.

“Whether the victim is a farmer, a child, a police officer, a soldier, a Christian, a Muslim, or a person of any ethnic group, every Nigerian life has equal value,” Obi said.

“We must stop counting our dead and start protecting our living.”

The latest attack occurred between Thursday night and the early hours of Friday, September 11, when suspected bandits reportedly invaded Ayilamo, a farming community in Tombo Ward.

Benue State Police Command said four mobile police officers and seven civilians were killed during the attack.

According to the command, the attackers stormed the community in large numbers but were eventually repelled by police operatives deployed to defend the area.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Peter Aondongu, said in a statement that Police Mobile Force personnel, tactical teams and conventional officers engaged the attackers in a gun battle that lasted about seven hours.

He said the security operatives eventually forced the attackers to retreat into the surrounding forest, adding that the bodies of four slain officers were recovered during search and rescue operations.

The command also confirmed the recovery of the remains of seven civilians, which were deposited at a mortuary.

Residents, however, gave a grim account of the assault, claiming that more than 200 armed men invaded the community, shooting at residents and setting houses ablaze.

One of the residents, Tyolumun Ugande, said the attackers approached the community from Amaafu Road in neighbouring Taraba State before engaging the police detachment in a prolonged gun battle.

Another resident, James Udough, said the latest incident was the second attack within a month in which mobile policemen deployed to the community had been killed.

Reacting to the development, Obi urged the Federal Government and security agencies to urgently intensify efforts to identify and prosecute those responsible for the killings while taking concrete measures to prevent further attacks.

He said Nigeria could not afford to continue with a situation where citizens and security personnel were repeatedly killed without lasting solutions to insecurity.

“A nation that cannot protect the lives of its citizens has a duty to ask itself some very difficult questions. We must do better. We must secure Nigeria,” he said.

Obi also called for a decisive response to the recurring violence, stressing that the responsibility of the government must go beyond reacting to attacks after lives had been lost.

“Nigeria cannot continue on this path,” he said.