The President of Mzough U Tiv UK (MUTUK), Victor Aleva, has declared that no effort has been made to rebuild Yelwata community in Benue State, months after a deadly herdsmen attack in June claimed more than 200 lives.
President Tinubu visited Benue in the aftermath of the killings, which left scores dead, many injured, and hundreds displaced. However, Aleva insists that Yelwata remains in ruins despite the presidential visit.
“I was in Yelwata last week and I saw the devastation myself. Nothing has changed. This is not about playing to the gallery. It is a sad reality,” he told Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.
Aleva dismissed the president’s assurances, recalling that during his earlier interview he warned “nothing good would come out of the President’s visit.”
During his visit, Tinubu ordered service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police to arrest those behind the killings. Days later, the Inspector-General, Kayode Egbetokun, announced the arrest of 26 suspects.
Aleva rejected the claim as false. “You know that is a lie. Less than 48 hours after the president scolded the IGP, they paraded some people. Where are they now? The attack happened in mid-June, it is more than two months since,” he queried.
He further argued that the violence was not a herder–farmer clash, but a deliberate attempt to wipe out the Yelwata community.
Aleva said residents had expected the president to order the rebuilding of the village rather than, in his words, “playing to the gallery.”