Nigerian Concord Newspaper
The Media Team of the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in Benue state, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN has cleared airs on the issue of Zaki Biam-Gbeji massacres and the compensation that followed, noting that the Benue State government is playing politics of deception.
This was contained in a press statement signed and made available to reporters yesterday by James Ian, Media Assistant to Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN.
The statement reads below:
In a lengthy article circulated on Thursday, July 16, 2026, Governor Hyacinth Alia’s Technical Adviser on Media, Publicity and Strategic Communication, Solomon Iorpev, launched a broadside against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 2027 governorship candidate, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN.
In the article titled “Why PDP and its Candidate’s Security Promises Lack Credibility in Benue,” Iorpev alleged that Chief Aondoakaa frustrated efforts by victims of the 2001 Zaki Biam and Gbeji military invasion to secure compensation awarded by a Federal High Court. Coming from a senior government spokesman, such weighty allegations deserve to be scrutinized against the facts, not propaganda, conjecture or political revisionism.
By attempting to drag Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN, into the Zaki Biam compensation matter, Mr Iorpev has unwittingly exposed the intellectual bankruptcy of the Alia administration’s propaganda machinery.
When a government runs out of achievements, it begins to manufacture villains.
When it cannot defend its record, it attacks the character of its opponents.
And when it cannot explain the bloodletting taking place under its watch, it goes digging into events that happened a quarter of a century ago.
Mr. Iorpev wants Benue people to believe that Chief Michael Aondoakaa is anti-Benue because, as Attorney-General of the Federation, he appealed a judgment entered against the Federal Government.
That argument is not only ridiculous; it is insulting to the intelligence of Benue people.
The Attorney-General of the Federation is the Chief law officer of the Federation .His duty is not to abandon the government in court because the plaintiffs happen to be his kinsmen. His duty is to defend the legal interests of his federation within the bounds of the law.
Appeals are part of the judicial process. They are not crimes. They are not acts of wickedness. They are constitutional rights.
If filing an appeal makes Attorney General of the Federation anti-Benue, then every lawyer who has ever challenged a judgment in court must also be guilty.
It is also important to place the matter in its proper historical context. The Zaki-Biam military invasion occurred in October 2001, several years before President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua assumed office in May 2007.
The judgment of the Federal High Court, Enugu, awarding ₦41.8 billion in damages was delivered on July 5, 2007, at a time when the Federal Government had every constitutional right to challenge the decision through the appellate process. Contrary to the false impression being created by Solomon Iorpev, the Federal Government’s consideration of an out-of-court settlement did not originate with Chief Michael Aondoakaa.
Indeed, the offer of ₦8 billion as compensation to the victims was already on the table before he became Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. Following negotiations, an out-of-court settlement was eventually agreed upon, with ₦8 billion awarded as compensation to the affected communities.
More significantly, throughout the tenure of President Yar’Adua, a Fulani man under whom Chief Aondoakaa served as Attorney-General, not a single part of Benue State was occupied by armed Fulani herders, nor were Benue communities subjected to the scale of killings, displacement and territorial occupation that have become common place today. Therefore, for officials of an administration under whose watch large portions of Benue have come under relentless attacks and occupation to attempt to weaponize a 25-year-old incident for political gain is both hypocritical and dishonest. Governor Alia ,his cohorts and his media aides should stop looking for scapegoats in history and instead explain to Benue people why insecurity has worsened under their watch despite unprecedented resources and repeated promises.
The real question Mr. Iorpev has failed to answer is this:
Where is the evidence that Aondoakaa personally opposed justice for the Zaki-Biam victims?
Where is the statement in which he allegedly vowed that compensation would never be paid? Where is the court finding against him? Where is the official record? Where is the proof? None exists.
What we have instead is a desperate attempt to convert political gossip into historical fact.
Even more shameful is the reckless attempt to link Chief Aondoakaa to the death of Chief Alexander Gaadi. That allegation is cruel, irresponsible and malicious.
No court made such a finding. No investigative panel made such a finding. No competent authority made such a finding.
It exists only in the fertile imagination of those whose stock-in-trade is character assassination.
But perhaps the greatest irony is that the same government of Alia which is attacking Chief Aondoakaa today has completely lost the moral authority to lecture anyone on security or compassion.
Solomon Iorpev spent several paragraphs also attacking the Ortom administration over insecurity. Yet, he conveniently forgot that the worst massacres in Benue’s recent history have occurred under the government he now serves.
He forgot Yelewata. He forgot the countless attacks across Gwer West, Agatu, Katsina-Ala, Logo, Okpokwu, Ukum, Otukpo, Kwande, Guma and other communities.
He forgot the thousands of Benue people who remain displaced. He forgot the widows. He forgot the orphans. He forgot the mass graves.
Or perhaps he remembers all these things but would rather not discuss them.
Because discussing them would require explaining what Governor Alia has done with the enormous resources available to his administration.
It would require explaining why communities are still being overrun.
It would require explaining why many farmers remain unable to return safely to their ancestral lands despite Alia’s promise of returning them within his first 100 days in office.
It would require explaining why insecurity remains the defining reality of life for many Benue people after more than three years of this administration.
Instead of providing answers, they have chosen distraction.
Instead of addressing today’s failures, they are manufacturing controversies about yesterday.
Instead of protecting lives, they are busy writing political fiction.
The people of Benue are wiser than what the Alia government thinks.
The people know that no amount of propaganda can erase reality.
They know that no amount of name-calling can rewrite history.
And they know that those who cannot defend their record will always attempt to destroy the reputation of those they fear.
The truth is simple.
Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa served as Attorney-General of the Federation and discharged his constitutional responsibilities.
Governor Samuel Ortom fought relentlessly to draw national attention to the killings in Benue when many preferred silence.
And the Alia administration, despite all its propaganda, cannot point to a security miracle that justifies the arrogance with which its spokespersons now speak.
The tragedy of Benue is not that Michael Aondoakaa appealed a judgment nearly 20 years ago.
The tragedy is that while government propagandists are busy fighting political battles, innocent Benue people are still being buried.
That is the issue. That is the failure. And that is the verdict history will remember.
Signed:
James Ian
Media Assistant to Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN