Yesterday, the Federal High Court in Abuja heard terrifying tales of how more than 100 terrorists with AK-47s attacked the Yelwata community in Benue State, murdering more than 150 people and setting fire to buildings.
The news came out when the court sent nine people back to jail for their alleged roles in the massacre. They had been charged with 57 counts of terrorism, according to Vanguard.
Ardo Lawal Mohammed Dono, Ardo Muhammadu Saidu, Alhaji Haruna Abdullahi, Yakubu Adamu, Musa Mohammed, Abubakar Adamu, Shaibu Ibrahim, Saleh Mohammed, and Bako Jibrin are all on trial.
The federal government said that the defendants were involved of a series of meetings that took place in Nasarawa State between May and June 2025, where plans were made to assault Yelwata in the Guma Local Government Area of Benue State. The attack finally happened on June 13, 2025.
When the hearing started up again, the prosecution called its first witness, Mr. Moses Paul, a Chief Superintendent of Police and member of the Nigeria Police Force’s Intelligence Response Unit.
The witness told trial Justice Joyce Abdulmalik that the defendants were hired and paid by unhappy Fulani chiefs who held meetings and raised money to attack Benue communities, including Yelwata.
Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, led the witness in giving evidence. The witness said he was in Apa, Benue State, on a kidnapping mission when word of the Yelwata attack broke.
“My lord, we heard about an attack in Yelwata on June 13, 2025.” He stated, “I was in Apa on a kidnapping case when we were told to go to Yelwata town right away.”
He said that investigations started on June 14 and led to the arrests of the defendants in Lafia, Nasarawa State, as well as in Kadarko and Ageregu, which are border settlements between Benue and Nasarawa states.
The witness told the court that Abdullahi, the first defendant, allegedly admitted during questioning to going to meetings with a number of Fulani chiefs in Nasarawa State. He added that some of the meetings took place in Ardo Lawal Dono’s house and were called to talk about what they saw as unfair treatment of Fulani herders in Nasarawa and Benue states, such as the killing of their cattle.
He said that at the end of one of these meetings, Dono, who was called the head of Ardos in Nasarawa State, allegedly told the people there to carry out a vengeance assault.
A second meeting took place at the home of the second defendant, Ardo Mohammed Saidu, where it was decided that money would be raised to carry out the procedure. Abdullahi is said to have said he gave N300,000, while another participant gave N200,000.
The witness further said that Saidu, who is also known as Ardo Kadalko, said he lost roughly 250 cows and two children in a village near Yelwata.
The prosecution’s witness said that the attackers first went after a community called Dawudu, but when they met strong opposition, they changed their minds and went to Yelwata instead.
“The number of people who came to attack Yelwata was over 100, and they were armed with AK-47s,” the witness claimed. He also said that more than 200 people were attacked in the hamlet, which had become a safe spot for people who had to leave their homes.
He said, “People who were hiding in Yelwata were also hurt in the attack.” He added that he spent over a month in the area looking into what happened.
He said that investigations were still going on and that more arrests might be made.
Justice Abdulmalik put off the next hearing in the case until Friday.
After pleading not guilty to the accusation, the defendants were sent to Kuje Prisons.
They are being charged with breaking different parts of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the same law says they can be punished for doing so.
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