“Disconnected, disgraceful,” Presidency slammed over response to Benue killings

The federal government’s response to the ongoing mass killings in Benue State has been met with sharp criticism, as former presidential candidate and political leader Chief Peter Ameh lashed out at the Tinubu administration, calling its statements “disconnected from reality” and “an insult to the victims.”

Chief Ameh, who previously served as the National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), condemned the Presidency’s recent comments on the crisis, particularly its call for “dialogue and reconciliation” and for the arrest of “perpetrators on all sides.”

“The Presidency’s response is not only disappointing but utterly reprehensible,” Ameh said in a statement. “They are calling for dialogue with terrorists who slaughter innocent men, women, and children in the dead of night. That’s not reconciliation—that’s betrayal.”

He argued that the federal government is attempting to create a false narrative of mutual conflict when, in reality, one side is clearly the aggressor.

“The people of Benue are not engaged in a conflict—they are victims of a deliberate and brutal campaign of extermination,” he said. “Framing these attacks as a two-sided dispute is not only dishonest, it is disgraceful.”

Chief Ameh also took aim at President Bola Tinubu’s warning to political and community leaders in Benue to “avoid inflammatory utterances,” accusing the President of shifting blame to grieving communities rather than addressing the actual perpetrators.

“This misplacement of blame suggests that the true threat lies in the words of victims rather than the actions of terrorists systematically wiping out entire villages,” Ameh stated. “It is rhetoric like this that emboldens the killers and silences those crying for help.”

He described the Presidency’s language as dangerously misleading and harmful to the affected communities.

“The Presidency has failed to identify or arrest the killers, yet it proposes negotiations—as if the victims somehow share responsibility for their own massacre,” he said. “That is both an insult and a gross abdication of duty.”

The former IPAC chairman stressed that what is happening in Benue and parts of the North Central is far beyond communal clashes and demands decisive government action.

“This is not the time for platitudes. This is not the time for excuses. It is the time for clarity, for resolve, and for justice,” he declared. “We demand an unequivocal condemnation of these terrorist acts, immediate protection for vulnerable communities, and justice for the dead and displaced.”

He concluded his remarks with a stern rebuke of the administration’s perceived indifference:

“The people of Benue deserve better. The people of North Central deserve better. If the federal government cannot recognize genocide when it is happening in plain sight, then what exactly does it stand for?”