{"id":68286,"date":"2025-06-17T11:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T11:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=68286"},"modified":"2025-06-17T11:00:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T11:00:27","slug":"obi-slams-presidency-for-ignoring-benue-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/06\/17\/obi-slams-presidency-for-ignoring-benue-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"Obi Slams Presidency for Ignoring Benue Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onilede Titi Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Former presidential candidate Peter Obi has faulted the Nigerian presidency for failing to show physical presence in Benue State amid a deadly wave of violence that has left over 150 people dead in Yelwata.<\/p>\n<p>Obi, who condemned the federal government\u2019s response, said the absence of the President or a top government official from the crisis zone reflects insensitivity and lack of urgency in addressing the tragedy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeadership must be visible in moments of national pain. A visit to Benue would have sent a message of solidarity, empathy, and commitment to justice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Yelwata attack, which occurred late last week, saw gunmen storm the community, killing scores and displacing thousands. Despite nationwide outrage, the Presidency\u2019s choice to delegate rather than directly engage has drawn sharp criticism from citizens and political figures.<\/p>\n<p>Obi stressed that beyond issuing statements, physical presence during such crises is both symbolic and strategic &#8211; crucial for restoring public trust and morale.<\/p>\n<p>He urged the federal government to treat the Benue killings with the seriousness they deserve and act swiftly to halt further bloodshed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onilede Titi Faith &nbsp; Former presidential candidate Peter Obi has faulted the Nigerian presidency for failing to show physical presence in Benue State amid a deadly wave of violence that has left over 150 people dead in Yelwata. Obi, who condemned the federal government\u2019s response, said the absence of the President or a top [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":68230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1724,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insecurity","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68287,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68286\/revisions\/68287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}