Hypocrites everywhere. From 2015 till date Igbo have been killing Igbo and burning their homes. Our people kept mute. Now these people are shedding more tears than the people of Benue and Plateau, shouting up and down. Yeye people.” – Joe Igbokwe
Amid nationwide outrage following the recent massacre in Benue State, a prominent chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Joe Igbokwe, has taken a swipe at Nigerians from the South-East, accusing them of hypocrisy in their reactions to violence across the country.
In a post shared on his Facebook page, Igbokwe criticized what he described as selective empathy among Igbos, stating that while they are quick to demand justice for victims of violence in other parts of the country—such as Plateau and Jos—they often remain silent about similar atrocities occurring within their own region.
According to him, since 2015, there has been persistent violence in the South-East, with Igbos killing fellow Igbos, yet these incidents rarely provoke the same level of outrage or advocacy from the region’s political and civil society actors. “They cry more for others than their own,” Igbokwe alleged.
His comments came in the wake of one of the deadliest attacks in Benue State this year, where no fewer than 200 people—including women, children, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and five security operatives—were brutally killed.
Eyewitnesses recounted how the assailants invaded the communities in coordinated attacks, striking from two directions and leaving widespread devastation in their wake.
The massacre occurred just 48 hours after a similar deadly incident in Mtswenem and Akondotyough Bawa villages in Makurdi Local Government Area, where 25 people lost their lives. The back-to-back assaults have reignited concerns about the breakdown of coordination between federal and state-level security agencies.
In response to the escalating violence, aggrieved youths took to the streets in Makurdi, staging protests and blocking major roads, including the Wurukum Roundabout. The demonstrators called on the Federal Government to act swiftly to prevent further bloodshed by armed bandits and unknown gunmen.
The killings have triggered nationwide condemnation, with Nigerians across ethnic lines expressing their grief and frustration on social media. Among those who reacted was Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, who described the attacks as a national disgrace and a moral failure.
“This is not merely violence. It is a failure of leadership, a stain on our collective conscience,” Obi stated. “Every life lost is a Nigerian life, each one precious, each one irreplaceable. We cannot accept the normalisation of mass killing. It is intolerable.”
He further emphasized that the primary responsibility of any government—federal, state, or local—is to protect lives and property. “When it repeatedly fails,” he asked, “what kind of nation are we bequeathing to our children?”