Benue police’s Operation Zenda has been accused of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and the killing of detainees, raising concerns over impunity and weak oversight.
Tse Angaador is a farming community about 182 kilometres from Makurdi, the Benue State capital. With an estimated population of about 3,000 residents, the village is in the Gaambe Tiev district of the Logo Local Government Area. The road linking it to the outside world is a narrow red earth track that cuts through cassava and yam fields.
Polycarp Yaapera attended the vigil with his younger brother, Aondoakura, a 34-year-old father of three.
“All of a sudden, I heard gunshots. When I turned, it was the police. I turned back and saw my brother, who was sitting next to me, fall to the ground,” Polycarp said.
He recalled diving behind a mud wall, where he hid for about five minutes until the shooting stopped. From a distance, he saw bodies lying on the ground. His brother, Aondoakura, was among the seven mourners who died.
The gunmen were members of an elite police unit codenamed “Operation Zenda.” The state police command had established the unit in 2008 to tackle rising cases of kidnapping, communal clashes, and boundary disputes in the volatile North-central state. However, Benue residents interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES described the unit as a source of fear, alleging extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and violent raids.
The bereaved mother, Helen Bam, was inside her room with some sympathisers when they heard the gunshots.
“One of the police officers came to my door and kicked it open,” she said. “Other officers joined him, and they started searching everywhere.”
Mrs Bam alleged that the officers took the ₦32,000 cash they found in her room and a smartphone belonging to one of her daughters.
Her son, Lubem, also died in the raid.
“My husband died in 2015 and left me with five children,” she said, her sorrow still heavy, two years later. “Now Kumawuese is gone. Lubem is gone.”
After the burial of the two children, Mrs Bam said she suffered a health episode that required hospitalisation. When PREMIUM TIMES visited Tse Angaador in January 2026, she said she may never recover from the tragedy.
“I do not sleep at night,” she said. “Anytime I see police, I want to ask them to kill me too.”
The community’s head, Mbaveluior Yaapera, said the police took the bodies away after the shooting. He alleged that Akegh Ernest, the commander of Operation Zenda, led the team.
“They loaded their bodies into a Hilux van and drove away. We were too afraid to follow,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES also spoke with a resident who said he witnessed the bodies being deposited at a private mortuary in Ugba.
The police Hilux carrying the bodies arrived at about 6 a.m., but officers allegedly prevented onlookers from approaching the bodies.
“When police kill armed bandits, they usually display the bodies at Y Junction in Ugba, the headquarters of Logo LGA, for the public to see before taking them to the general hospital,” the eyewitness, who requested anonymity for fear of being targeted, said. “But that morning was different. They drove straight to a private mortuary instead of the general hospital.”
PREMIUM TIMES visited the mortuary, but an official who requested anonymity said he was not allowed to speak about bodies.
Following the shootings, Mr Yaapera said the community contacted Solomon Wombo, its representative in the House of Representatives, and Benjamin Uzenda, the chairman of Logo Local Government Area at the time.
At a meeting in Anyiin, the council boss reportedly told community representatives that the police regretted the killings.
“We were told the killings were an error from the police,” he said. “But they said if we insisted on taking it up and there was an attack by armed herders in future, security would not come to assist us.”
Mr Wombo later provided ₦500,000 to support the burial of the seven men, according to Mr Yaapera.
PREMIUM TIMES made several attempts to reach Mr Wombo by phone, but he did not answer or return the calls. The newspaper also sent him a WhatsApp message asking whether, beyond providing ₦500,000 for the victims’ burial, he had followed up on the circumstances surrounding the killings, engaged the relevant authorities to seek accountability, or taken any steps to prevent similar incidents. The message was delivered, but he did not respond.
PREMIUM TIMES also reached out to Benjamin Uzenda, who was chairman of Logo Local Government Area at the time of the incident, by phone and identified the subject of the report. Mr Uzenda acknowledged the call and agreed to meet the reporter in person later that day to discuss the July 2024 killings and the steps he took following the incident. However, the proposed meeting did not take place, and subsequent calls to Mr Uzenda went unanswered.
The community said the remains of the victims were buried on 10 August 2024 in Tse Angaador. They were identified as Ordughga Tyoapine, Kater Tarpav, Yaapera Ternenge, Nater Setim, Ioryevese Tarpav, Bam Lubem and Yaapera Aondoakura.
Six months before the killings in Tse Angaador, another community in Logo Local Government Area witnessed a similar security operation.
At about 10 a.m. on 12 January 2024, a team of police officers arrived in Tse Jikina, Mbavuur Ward, about 31 kilometres from Tse Angaador. Residents said Akegh Ernest, then a divisional police officer in Logo, now commander of Operation Zenda, led the team into the community in two Hilux vans.
According to a resident, Tornyor Orkile, the officers’ mission was to arrest his brother, Iorhom Orkile, an herbal practitioner they accused of supplying charms to armed bandits in the Sankera axis. The suspect, Iorhom, told PREMIUM TIMES that the officers searched his compound without presenting a warrant.
“I am a registered member of the Nigeria Union of Medical Herbal Practitioners. I have not had any contact with bandits, nor have I provided charms to them,” he said.
