“BENUE BLEEDS, GOVERNMENT CAMPAIGNS: FAROTIMI DEMANDS JUSTICE FOR THE DEAD”
Legal practitioner and outspoken activist, Dele Farotimi, has taken a bold swipe at the Nigerian government, accusing it of enabling a silent genocide through willful inaction and insensitivity.
Speaking during a Thursday appearance on Channels Television, Farotimi described the administration’s response to recent mass killings as disgraceful and deeply disconnected from the pain of ordinary Nigerians.
In a scathing rebuke, he faulted the president for turning what should have been a solemn visit to a grief-stricken state into what he called a political showcase.
“The very least a leader owes a grieving people is empathy. But instead, what we witnessed was a tragic display of tone-deaf politicking—almost like a rehearsal for the campaign trail,” Farotimi said.
He went on to question the very foundation of the state’s legitimacy.
“At its core, any form of government—be it democratic or dictatorial—exists primarily to protect the lives and belongings of its people. When a government fails at that, it loses its moral right to govern,” he asserted.
Farotimi bemoaned the chilling normalisation of bloodshed across the country, warning that Nigerians are slowly losing the capacity to feel outrage.
“We’ve become heartbreakingly numb. Two hundred souls were butchered, and yet the Commander-in-Chief stood in Benue, addressing the nation like it was a campaign crowd. This is not just neglect—it’s an insult,” he lamented.
He issued a stern call for the ruling APC to abandon what he described as its habitual silence and complicity, urging the party to genuinely rise to its constitutional responsibility.
“This is not conjecture anymore. The complicity of this regime is glaring. If there’s any conscience left, it should abandon these sins and begin to truly defend Nigerian lives,” Farotimi declared.
In an even more startling allegation, he claimed that security agencies are fully aware of terrorist encampments operating with impunity in Benue, Plateau, and Nasarawa—but have deliberately turned a blind eye.
“They know where the killers hide. They know. But the silence is deafening. The inaction is criminal,” he concluded.
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