Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi has responded to President Bola Tinubu’s decision to visit Benue State following last weekend’s massacre that claimed over 200 lives.
The former Anambra governor described the planned visit as “refreshing news” while calling for similar presidential attention to Niger State’s flood disaster victims.
In a statement issued on Monday, Obi acknowledged Tinubu’s rescheduled itinerary, which saw the President postpone his Kaduna trip to assess Benue’s crisis firsthand.
“It was refreshing news on Monday to a bewildered nation learning that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has finally decided to visit the scene of the brutal killings in Benue State. For this I thank him even as I make further request that similar gesture should be extended to Niger state that lost more number of human lives in a natural disaster, flood recently,” Obi stated.
The opposition leader emphasized the symbolic importance of presidential visits to traumatized communities, noting that both Benue and Niger States have each suffered over 200 casualties from recent tragedies.
He highlighted Mokwa’s devastation where floods killed 200 people with 1,000 still missing, stressing “These are not just statistics; they are the lives of Nigerian families torn apart and their communities destroyed.”
Obi urged Tinubu to use the Niger State visit to demonstrate that “all Nigerian lives matter and that no community, no matter how rural, is forgotten.” He further called for enhanced nationwide security measures, particularly in vulnerable regions, while maintaining that the President’s physical presence would provide much-needed reassurance to grieving populations.
The Labour Party chieftain’s remarks came hours after Tinubu, during the Greater Abuja Water Supply Network commissioning, expressed sympathy for Benue residents through spokesperson Bayo Onanuga. The President’s revised schedule now prioritizes crisis assessment in Benue before proceeding to Kaduna on Thursday.
