THE 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s decision to skip a visit to Yelewata, the Benue State community recently ravaged by attacks.
Speaking in an interview today, Adebayo criticised Tinubu’s explanation that poor weather, flooding, and bad roads led to the aborted trip to the scene of the deadly assault.
President Tinubu had visited Makurdi, the Benue State capital, on Wednesday, June 18, to commiserate with victims and families affected by the killings allegedly carried out by suspected herdsmen.
During the visit, Tinubu stated, “I aborted my visit to Yelewata town because of the rain, flood and bad roads.”
Reacting, Adebayo described the president’s excuse as “untenable,” asserting that Tinubu, as Commander-in-Chief, should have prioritised reaching the affected community despite the challenges.
“He should have made sure that come rain, come shine, he got to the venue of the attack, Yelewata, and he saw the people,” Adebayo said. “He cannot say as Commander-in-Chief, there is a part of the country that is unreachable. People live there.”
The SDP chieftain further alleged that the president’s visit appeared politicised and lacked the solemnity expected during a national tragedy.
“Going to a place of mourning—where even during the civil war, 200 lives lost would be headline news—should have been a somber occasion. But what we witnessed looked more like a political rally,” he noted.
According to Adebayo, the president should have visited as a “chief mourner” and communicated with empathy and restraint.
The attack in Yelewata on Friday night reportedly led to the deaths of scores of residents, with over 3,000 people displaced. While official figures from the government placed the death toll at 59, civil rights groups have claimed that as many as 200 people were killed.
The massacre has sparked national outrage and drawn international condemnation, including a statement from Pope Leo XIV, who decried the incident as a “terrible massacre” and called for an end to such violence.
The killings have also reignited debates around security, governance, and the responsiveness of leadership during national emergencies.