Yelewata massacre: Abba Moro slams FG over ‘indifference’ to Benue insecurity

From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

Senate Minority Leader, Sen Patrick Abba Moro has berated the Federal Government and the Nigerian political class for being ‘indifferent’ to the magnitude of insecurity bedeviling the nation.
Moro who said this on Saturday at Yelewata community, Guma local government area during the unveiling of the memorial monument to commemorate the one year anniversary of the massacre, accused the government of failure and reluctance to confront the dreaded monster headlong.
Recall that over 200 persons were murdered on June 13th 2025 and thousands dispalced when suspected herders invaded Yelewata community.
Moro castigated the political class, asking rhetorically , “can we in all honesty gallivant around during campaigns and tell the people to vote for us again when the mandate that has already been given to us and which we still hold has not been effectively applied for the people’s welbeing? We need to wake up”.
Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, His Lordship Wilfred Anagbe who led the memorial mass, challenged Federal and State government to make it a policy to immediately resettle displaced persons to their ancestral homes rather than resort to makeshift Internally Displaced Persons IDP camps.
Bishop Anagbe pointed out that the continued accommodation of IDPs in camps by government for fear of terrorists attacks is a defeatist approach which portrayed the government before the populace as weak.
He added that allowing the people to live off charity is counter-productive to their physical and psychological welbeing and erodes their human dignity.
Bishop Anagbe accused the Nasarawa and Benue State governments of negligence in acting on the intelligence reports at their disposal especially on Yelewata.
He however, lauded the resilience of the people for remaining strong in the aftermath of the physical and psychological trauma inflicted on them by terrorists, assuring that the Christian community worldwide are still with them in prayers.
Barrister Franc Utoo, Director of Advocacy of the US-based non profit organization Equipping The Persecuted, ETF which funded the Yelewata genocide memorial monument said by “choosing to erect the monument, the organization affirms that those slain in Yelewata must never be reduced to a passing headline or anonymous casualty figure; they must be remembered with dignity, permanence and honour”.
“As the first monument of it’s kind in Benue state, it occupies a historic place in the moral landscape of remembrance, preserving the names of the 272 members of the Yelewata community who were killed – 67 children, 83 women and 122 men – and placing before the world a solemn record of lives violently taken”, he said.