Letter To The Idoma Nation, Benue State & Plateau State Leadership

EMMANUEL PETER ADAYEHI 

Subject: Collective Action and International Petition to the United Nations and Other Human Rights Bodies Over Sustained Attacks in Our Communities

Your Excellencies, Traditional Rulers, Political Leaders, and People of Idoma Nation, Benue State, and Plateau State,

I write with a heavy heart, but also with hope, taking a cue from the bold leadership example recently demonstrated by His Excellency Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State who, in speaking truth to power, opened a new chapter in our national history: a chapter where Nigerian leaders refuse to normalize the killing of their people.

Our own land — Idoma Nation, Benue, Plateau, and other Middle Belt states — has for too long been besieged by daily attacks from bandits and armed groups. The silence cannot continue. We must now speak to the world.

1. The Reality on the Ground: Data and Analysis

The statistics over the last 2 years show a humanitarian crisis unfolding in our states:

Benue State
6,896 people killed in armed attacks over the last 2 years of the current administration — over two-thirds of the total fatalities recorded in 7 northern states
All 23 LGAs have suffered attacks, with Ukum, Logo, Katsina-Ala, Gwer West, Gwer East, Apa and Agatu the most frequent
Over 148 villages sacked in 7 Benue LGAs, leaving 450,000 people displaced
June 2025 About 200 people killed in Guma LGA alone. June 13, 2025 Yelewata attack: ∼150 people killed, homes torched
April-May 2025: 134 killed in 40 days across 10 LGAs. Sankera axis: 83 killed in 5 days
-Since 2021: At least 930 people died in farmer-herder violence, with over half a million displaced ed1810e9ea37949d45ac

Plateau State
2,630 people killed in the last 2 years
Senate Report 2001-2025: 11,749 people killed, 420 communities attacked across 13 LGAs. 136 communities abandoned and occupied by strangers
25,528 households displaced, 35+ churches destroyed, 33 pastors killed
167 rural communities attacked in Bassa, Barkin Ladi, Bokkos, Jos East, Jos South, Mangu, Riyom and Wase in 2 years
April 2025: 52 people killed in Mwaghavul Chiefdom. April 3, 2025 Bokkos attack: children and entire families killed ed1896fc10e9ea37

Pattern Documented by Rights Groups
Amnesty International and local analysts describe the attacks as night raids: homes burned with people inside, boreholes/clinics/schools destroyed, grain reserves and places of worship targeted. The violence is now linked to kidnapping, cattle rustling, and illicit mining, making it self-sustaining. 10e9ea37

SBM Intelligence notes that since 2019, clashes in the region have claimed 500+ lives and forced 2.2 million to flee. 104e

2. Governance Failure and Why We Must Act Now

Unlike previous administrations, the current Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration has, according to Amnesty International, seen “worsening violence and mass displacement”. Two years after promises to restore security, the watchdog condemned the government’s “shocking failure” to protect lives and property. ed18

Key concerns raised by communities and analysts:
– Bad governance, corruption, and policy failures that have denigrated human dignity
– Impunity: attacks continue with little prosecution of financiers
– Displacement and food insecurity: Villages razed, farmlands abandoned, threatening Nigeria’s broader stability 96fcea37

President Tinubu himself acknowledged the crisis, stating at least 40 people were killed in a Zike community attack and ordering an investigation. Yet the killings persist weekly. 475a

3. Our Demand: Take This to the International Community

Inspired by Governor Makinde’s courage to speak plainly, I urge the *Idoma Nation Council, Benue State Government, Plateau State Government, and all affected states* to:

1. Write an Official Letter of Complaint to:
– United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
– United States Department of State – Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
– European Union Delegation to Nigeria
– African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

2. Attach Evidence:
Video footage, survivor testimonies, photographic documentation, and the data above. As local leaders have done in Otukpo, where youths marched with corpses to demand action, let the world see what we live with.

3. Specific Asks:
– Independent international investigation into funding sources of armed groups
– Protection for 450,000+ IDPs in Benue and 25,000+ households in Plateau
– International election observation for 2027 Nigerian elections*, given widespread loss of confidence and credibility in current leadership 86a796fced18

4. Why International Attention Matters Now

The Middle Belt is at a breaking point. Stakeholders at the North-Central Security Summit described the attacks as “systematic ethnic cleansing and territorial displacement aimed at erasing indigenous Plateau communities”. 96fc

Without structural reforms in land governance, rural policing, and accountability, the cycle will continue. The UN and other bodies have a mandate to intervene when a state is unable or unwilling to protect its people. ea37

Conclusion

Governor Seyi Makinde showed that speaking truth is not treason — it is leadership.
Let Idoma Nation, Benue, and Plateau now lead the next chapter: documenting, petitioning, and demanding justice not just from Abuja, but from the world.

We are not asking for pity. We are demanding our right to life, to farm, to worship, and to exist on our ancestral land.

You must provide compiling video evidence, documentary records, and community testimonies for onward transmission.

In solidarity,
Emmanuel Peter Adayehi, Haven
Citizen, Advocate for Human Rights and Good Governance
Dallas, Texas, USA