Nigerian-born international human rights lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe Esq has bemoaned the simultaneous deadly attacks on three communities in Benue State on Tuesday night and the bloody November 2025 average of 10 daily deaths, urging Nigeria’s new Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and Service Chiefs to show action on ground in order to forestall U.S. military intervention in the country.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ogebe also lamented that “a nation where heavily armed thugs meet openly with government officials and return unscathed is not a truly independent nation.”
He called on the new military chiefs “to prove their mettle and leave propaganda aside for the jobless jobbers,” counselling that “professional military should be unseen and unheard.”
Ogebe said they should “act and prove to the world that the Nigerian military is not a shadow of its former self but is still a regional powerhouse.”
According to a statement by Ogebe: “Overnight, there were bloody terror attacks in three separate communities in Benue state. The simultaneous deadly attacks in Ohimini, Utonkon and Takum in the north and south of the state in addition to the weekend atrocity in Plateau State push the total death toll in the middle belt to over 40 in the first five days of November 2025. A Catholic Church was also burnt. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19Y2HpxgcE/ Corpses of those killed yesterday at Anwule, Ohimini Benue state.
“This is apart from an ambush which occurred on the Lumma-Babanna road in Niger State’s Borgu LGA on the convoy of a lawmaker in which a soldier was killed bringing the total attacks in the middle belt to seven as at November 4 with an average of 10 deaths per day. This singular attack on a Muslim lawmaker was by Armed bandits linked to the Al-Qaeda-affiliated group JNIM unlike the prior attacks by suspected Fulani militia.
“What is most painful is that we received real-time updates on these attacks and monitored them overnight from the U.S. and yet there was no known military response on ground.
“In the northeast, a new EYN church opened just last week was attacked and its fence demolished in November too fortifying the factuality of targeted attacks on Christian communities and places of worship just hours and days after President Trump’s expression of concern. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1KgjKUpfHK/?mibextid=wwXIfr.
“The new security chiefs are called upon to prove their mettle and leave propaganda aside for the jobless jobbers. Professional military should be unseen and unheard and let peace and security speak for them.
“Now is the moment to act and prove to the world that the Nigerian military is not a shadow of its former self but is still a regional powerhouse. The attackers of Riyom, Ohimini, Utonkon and Takum must be cornered and crushed with decisive military skill.
“A ragtag bunch of terrorists and herdsmen militia cannot outwit and hold at bay Nigeria’s military that restored peace in Liberia and Sierra Leone but not at home. Boko Haram has been violently operational for 22 years by next month. How is this acceptable?
“A General once apocryphally said if an insurgency lasts beyond 24 hours, then the government is involved. Boko Haram’s violence has now lasted 22 years! Generals should drop microphones and pick up RPGs. A nation where heavily armed thugs meet openly with government officials and return unscathed is not a truly independent nation. Why will it not be a subject of mockery? Do better!”
