The Plateau State Youth Veterans have cried out for help following what they described as a “calculated genocide and land-grabbing campaign” targeting indigenous Plateau communities.
Speaking during a world press conference on Thursday in Jos, Adamu Kevin Kesuwo, chairman of the group, accused suspected terrorists of unleashing sustained, coordinated attacks that have claimed over 100 lives in less than three weeks.
The group cited recent deadly assaults on villages in Bokkos and Bassa Local Government Areas (LGAs), where over 105 people were murdered between April 2 and 13, 2025.
Particularly, they referenced the Palm Sunday massacre in Kimakpa and Zekki, where 54 sleeping villagers were slaughtered around 2:45 AM. They described these atrocities not as communal clashes, but “systematic genocide” aimed at erasing Plateau’s native populations.
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“It is with great concern to talk about the brutal killings of over 100 Plateau people in three local governments in less than three weeks between 2nd and 13th April, 2025 by suspected terrorists. As reported by BusinessDay of 4th April, 2025, several villages including Mangor, Tamiso, Daffo, Manguna, Hurti and Tadai in Bokkos local government in what seems to be a premeditated genocide against peaceful and loving people, who were embarking on their legitimate businesses could only be imagined. Over 51 precious souls were lost from the deadly attacks carried out by suspected terrorists.
“In a similar coordinated genocidal attack, over 54 innocent natives in Zekki and Kimakpa; villages of the Irigwe nation in Bassa local government, were gruesomely murdered by same suspected Militias on a Palm Sunday, while enjoying their peaceful sleep at about 2:45 AM.”
The group said the continuous and sustained attacks on various communities in the state should not be perceived as herders-farmers conflict but a calculated genocide.
Highlighting a report by Gastor Barrie as published in a national daily on April 15, the Youth Veterans revealed that Bassa LGA alone has suffered 2,866 attacks since 2001, with 1,107 deaths and over 27,000 farms destroyed.
They accused Nigerian authorities of silence and inaction in the face of the bloodshed, contrasting the muted response with global reactions to crises in Gaza and Ukraine.
They criticised the Arewa Consultative Forum’s recent call for a state of emergency in Plateau as biased and selective, pointing out that more ravaged states like Zamfara, Borno, and Sokoto had never faced such demands.
The Veterans linked the rising violence to Boko Haram’s evolution into a multinational terror franchise now supported by foreign jihadist groups and facilitated by corrupt northern politicians.
They claimed that some of the terrorists paid by northern governors have since dispersed into Plateau and other parts of Nigeria, imposing illegal taxes and engaging in illegal mining.
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“A State Governor in the North was quoted to have said that he paid the bandits to pacify them. Another governor in an interview few years ago, said that he can no longer continue to pay these people indefinitely. He said that they should return to where they came from. The big question now is, who are they or rather who were the people that were paid by some Northern states governors to pacify them not to be recalcitrant?” the group asked.
Calling for a total overhaul of Nigeria’s approach to security, the group demanded proactive intelligence-based interventions and a rejection of the “fire-brigade response” that allows mass killings to occur before forces arrive.
They also stressed that if the government cannot defend them, communities have a constitutional right to self-defense under Section 33(2) of the Nigerian Constitution.
The Youth Veterans urged the federal and state governments to enforce the Anti-Land Grabbing Law, ban open grazing, and work with international bodies like the United Nations to investigate and end the killings.
