By Khaleed Yazeed
The Cycle of Blood That Will Not End
On Today, Sunday, July 12, 2026, the blood of innocent farmers once again stained the soil of Benue State. Fulani herdsmen, armed with AK-47 rifles and driven by a thirst for revenge, descended on communities in Otukpo Local Government Area and unleashed a wave of terror that left dozens dead. The attack was a reprisal for the killing of Ardo Risku Mohammed, the Benue State Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), who was ambushed and killed on June 26, 2026, while returning from a peace meeting.
The murder of Ardo Risku was not a justification for the massacre of innocent farmers. It was a pretext. The Fulani elite have perfected the art of using vengeance as a cover for ethnic cleansing. When one of their own is killed, they kill dozens, hundreds, even thousands of innocent people to send a message: you cannot touch us without paying a price that will make you regret ever being born. This is not justice. This is terrorism. This is the logic of the jungle, dressed in the robes of “communal conflict.”
The Peace Meeting That Became a Death Trap
Ardo Risku Mohammed was a Fulani leader who had agreed to attend a peace meeting convened by the Divisional Police Officer in Ohimini Local Government Area. The meeting was intended to reduce escalating violence between Fulani herders and the predominantly Christian farming communities of Benue State. He went in good faith. He went to build bridges. And he was killed.
The Benue State Government condemned the killing and appealed to MACBAN not to retaliate. The government pleaded: “Do not pay evil for evil” . But the Fulani elite do not listen to pleas. They listen to their own sense of grievance. They listen to their own calculus of power. They listen to their own conviction that a Fulani life is worth more than a hundred Christian lives.
And so, days after Ardo Risku was killed, the Fulani militias struck. They attacked Sai community in Katsina-Ala Local Government Area, killing at least 15 people and injuring many others, including women and children. They attacked Okpafie community in Okpokwu LGA, killing two people and rustling over 40 cows. They attacked Anwule community in Ohimini LGA, killing a pastor and two others. The pattern was unmistakable: a coordinated campaign of revenge, carried out by armed militias who had no interest in justice, only in blood.
The Fulani Elite Are Complicit
The Fulani elite are not innocent bystanders in this cycle of violence. They are its architects. They have created a system where Fulani militias operate with impunity, where their leaders are treated as victims rather than perpetrators, and where the government negotiates with them as if they are legitimate actors rather than terrorists.
Consider the testimony of Moses Paul, a prosecution witness in the trial of nine suspects over the Yelwata massacre in Guma LGA, where over 200 people were killed. Paul told the court that the attackers were allegedly sponsored and mobilised by aggrieved Fulani chiefs who held meetings and raised funds to execute the attack. The chiefs contributed money and recruited armed men. The assailants initially planned to strike Daudu but reportedly changed course to Yelwata after facing resistance. The massacre left more than 200 people dead.
This is not the work of rogue elements. This is the work of a coordinated network of Fulani chiefs who have turned violence into a political instrument. They have weaponized their grievances, and they have used the state’s weakness to expand their territory and consolidate their power.
The Boast of the Killer
A disturbing video that surfaced after the Yelwata massacre revealed the mindset of these killers. A young Fulani man, speaking in Hausa, boasted that he could kill 150 people for one cow. He said: “Killing a human being who offends me or kills my cow is nothing to me. There is no killing that be difficult for me to carry out to avenge my cow or any wrong done to me”. He laughed at the 200 people killed in Benue, calling it “small” compared to what they planned to do.
This is not the voice of a herder defending his livelihood. This is the voice of a terrorist who has been given a license to kill. And the Fulani elite have given him that license by their silence, by their defence of the indefensible, and by their refusal to condemn the atrocities committed by their own people.
The Terrorists Who Masquerade as Herders
Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has rightly described the attackers as “terrorists masquerading as herdsmen”. They are not herders. They are armed militias who have turned cattle rustling into a cover for ethnic cleansing. They are not fighting for grazing rights; they are fighting for land. They are not defending their cattle; they are defending their ideology of Fulani supremacy.
The traditional chief of the Tiv community, James Ayatse, told President Tinubu that the killings were part of a “calculated, well-planned, full-scale genocidal invasion and land-grabbing campaign that has lasted for decades”. He said it is not herder-farmer clashes; it is not communal clashes; it is not reprisal attacks or skirmishes.
This is the truth that the Fulani elite do not want you to hear. They do not want you to see that their “herders” are armed militias. They do not want you to see that their “grievances” are a cover for conquest. They do not want you to see that their “peace meetings” are a smokescreen for a campaign of ethnic domination.
The Silence of the Fulani Elite
The Fulani elite have been silent. The Sultan of Sokoto has not condemned the massacres. The Fulani political class has not called for justice. The Fulani traditional rulers have not spoken out against the violence. They have chosen to protect their own, even when their own are the perpetrators. They have chosen to silence the victims, even when the victims are Christians and Hausa farmers who have done nothing to deserve the bullets.
This is the hypocrisy of the Fulani elite. They cry when one of their own is killed, but they are silent when their own kill dozens. They demand justice for Ardo Risku, but they do not demand justice for the farmers of Sai, Yelwata, and Anwule. They call for peace when it suits them, but they unleash violence when it suits them.
We, the Hausa people, are not the Fulani. We do not believe that one life is worth more than another. We do not believe that revenge is a legitimate form of justice. We do not believe that the killing of innocent people can ever be justified. The Fulani elite have tried to drag us into their cycle of violence, but we refuse to be their foot soldiers.
The massacre in Benue is not a local issue. It is a national crisis. It is a crisis that exposes the failure of the Nigerian state to protect its citizens. It is a crisis that exposes the complicity of the Fulani elite in the violence. It is a crisis that demands a response.
The Nigerian government must stop treating the Fulani militias as “herders” and start treating them as terrorists. The government must arrest and prosecute the Fulani chiefs who sponsor and mobilise these militias. The government must deploy sufficient military forces to clear the forests of bandit camps and protect farming communities. The government must dismantle the shadow state that the Fulani militias have established in the Middle Belt.
But the government will not do this alone. The Hausa people must speak. The Middle Belt must resist. The Yoruba and Igbo must stand in solidarity.
The blood of the innocent cries out. And we will not be silent.
Khaleed Yazeed
Founder, Wakilin Yamma Youth Development Network
Katsina State, Nigeria
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