Peace meeting to death trap: How Benue’s Miyetti Allah Chairman was lured, assassinated

The family of slain Benue MACBAN Chairman Alhaji Ardo Risku Muhammad has alleged he was deliberately lured to a suspicious police-arranged peace meeting and subsequently ambushed and killed alongside his associate on his way home — raising explosive questions about the circumstances, planning and security failures surrounding his death

He went to a peace meeting. He never came home.

The family of Alhaji Ardo Risku Muhammad, Benue State Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, has broken their silence — and what they’re alleging is chilling.

According to Daily Trust, Muhammad was gunned down Friday afternoon alongside his associate, Yakubu Isah, while returning from a Divisional Police Officer-arranged dialogue between herders and farming communities in Ohimini Local Government Area. According to his eldest son, Muhammad Idris, nothing about that meeting felt right from the moment his father arrived.

“On Friday morning, I greeted my late father, Ardo Risku Muhammad, who informed me that he had been invited to a meeting by the Divisional Police Officer of Ohimini Local Government Area, scheduled to hold at Idekpa,” Idris told journalists.

His father had expected senior stakeholders — the LGA chairman and the Ado of Ohimini — to attend. Neither showed up. The DPO shrugged it off. The agenda felt thin. The meeting ended quickly. Two companions departed immediately afterward.

Muhammad and Isah stayed briefly, then left.

They never made it home.

“Alhaji Muazu reported sighting a Hilux van with tinted glasses. The occupants reportedly wound down to observe them but allowed them to pass without incident. We strongly believe that the said Hilux van was positioned to target my father and Mr. Yakubu Isah, who were both ambushed and killed shortly afterward,” Idris recounted.

The attack occurred around 2:00 p.m., just 2-3 kilometres from Ohimini at Okwudu in Otukpo LGA.

At a Makurdi press conference, Ohimini LGA Chairman Gabriel Adole — who admitted he wasn’t present at the meeting — didn’t mince words.

“This plan is an orchestrated one. It was not done by my local government or any Idoma-speaking person,” he declared, appealing for calm and thorough investigation.

The family is demanding answers — why was a high-risk meeting held without adequate security? Why were key promised stakeholders absent?

A peacemaker went to build bridges. Someone made sure he wouldn’t return.