The Kwande Local Government Area Traditional Council and the families of the victims of September 30, 2025, killings at Jato-Aka, Kwande Local Government Area (LGA), Benue State, are demanding for payment of the sum of Fifty Million Naira (N50m), from the Nigerian Army (NA) for “unlawfully cutting” young lives “in their prime and for also wounding others.”
Media reports on September 30 said bullets from Nigerian soldiers had cut short the lives of some students of ATM Secondary School Jato -Aka, following altercations with mourners who were returning from a burial. Protests erupted, following the killings.
A notice of demand, titled “The unlawful murder/wounding of students and other innocents in Jato-Aka: Demand for compensatory damages and a halt to unconstitutionality,” and addressed to the Chief of Army Staff, Nigerian Army headquarters, dated October 2, 2025, is endorsed by the Learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Prof. Sebastine Hon.
According to the notice, obtained by TNT, Kwande Area Traditional Council and the families have also raised “serious concerns about the neutrality of the men and officers of the Army deployed to the area, who allow Fulani bandits to go about with sophisticated weapons but arrest, detain and torture the locals for even daring to go about with a cutlass.”
“We hereby caution, very strongly, that any attempt to cover up this heinous crime, or any attempt to use official power to twist the story against the locals, shall be met with unimaginable legal but determined steps against the Nigerian Army high command. A petition to the world’s various criminal watchdogs is not ruled out,” the notice cautioned.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is the world’s number one watchdog.
This is not the first time a soldier’s bullet has killed a student in Jato-Aka. It happened in 2017, after a Vigilante Group, acting on a tip-off, apprehended a vehicle suspected of carrying arms. Soldiers, however, insisted the vehicle could not be searched, leading to protests.
