An open letter to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Security Agencies, the National Assembly, And The Government of Benue State
By Mabel Adinya Ade
IN GOD’S NAME, STOP THE KILLINGS IN BENUE AND NIGERIA.
With a broken heart and trembling hands, I write this letter not just as a mother, but as a voice for thousands of mothers whose children will never return home, whose husbands, sisters, and parents have been butchered in cold blood, and whose communities have been turned into mass graves and ash heaps.
We woke up yet again to unspeakable horror images and videos too gruesome to describe. Charred bodies, lifeless eyes of innocent children, women and girls mutilated, men and boys hacked to death while they ran for safety, and elderly people too frail to flee were burnt alive in their sleep.
This most recent carnage in Yelwata, Benue State, is not an isolated case. It comes after months and weeks of sustained killings across communities in Benue a campaign of terror that is now normalized through silence. Internally displaced persons who had sought safety in warehouses were burnt alive, some to ashes. Homes razed, hope extinguished, and the survivors now sit stunned by the roadside abandoned, terrified, and broken. Those displaced in Agatu, Naka, Logo, Kwande and other parts Benue and Nigeria are still begging for humanitarian aid and safety.
How long shall this slaughter continue while those in power offer condolences without protection, and hollow condemnations without action?
How long shall blame games and bureaucratic indifference mock the blood of our people?
This is not the time for silence. This is not the time for politics. This is a matter of humanity, of life and death.
We demand, in the name of every innocent soul lost:
An immediate and comprehensive deployment of military and security personnel to Yelwata and all affected communities in Benue State.
That the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior mobilize all necessary resources to restore peace and guarantee the safety of lives and property.
That the President, as Commander-in-Chief, publicly addresses the nation and declares a State of Emergency on the targeted killings in Benue State.
That the National Assembly urgently convenes a joint session on this crisis and takes legislative action to ensure accountability and coordinated response.
That perpetrators and enablers of these mass atrocities are identified, arrested, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
That the Benue State Government stops merely issuing statements and immediately strengthens local intelligence, vcommunity vigilantes, and humanitarian support for displaced families.
As a mother, I am begging you, in the name of God and humanity: STOP THE KILLINGS. STOP THE SILENCE. STOP THE COMPLICITY.
This land is soaked with the blood of the innocent. How many more mass graves shall we dig before we awaken to our collective failure?
I speak not just for myself, but for every mother clutching the bloodied shirt of her child, every father burying his son with his bare hands, and every orphan now left with only ashes where a lot home used to be.
History is watching. Heaven is weeping. Do not let their blood cry in vain.
Mabel Adinya Ade, mother and a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
