Benue-born renowned Archaeologist, Prof. Zacharys Gundu has dismissed the demands for retraction and apology made by Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, over his (Gundu’s) comments that Nasarawa State was harbouring those killing Benue citizens.
Gundu spoke in unequivocal terms at a town hall meeting organised by News Central Television on the insecurity challenges in North Central Nigeria.
Dr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), counsel to Governor Sule in a letter dated July 22, 2025, demanded a retraction and apology from Prof Gundu over his comments at the News Central Town Hall meeting, saying the comments caused him unquantifiable damage and injured his reputation in the eyes and minds of right thinking persons in the society.
In his reply to the demands, Prof Gundu through his counsel Prof. Sebastian Hon (SAN) dismissed the demand for retraction and apology, maintaining that he spoke the truth and he cannot, under any guise, comply with the demands of Governor Sule.
Hon wrote:
“We have the instructions of our client to dismiss the demands made in your letter of July 22, 2025. Our Client cannot, under any guise, comply with those demands. We do hope you will advise your client accordingly.”
In the response letter to Dr. Raji (SAN), Prof. Hon (SAN) on behalf of Prof. Gundu, stated that, the volume of evidence at the disposal of Prof Gundu to establish beyond all shadows of doubt that the murderous Fulani herdsmen attacking Benue State on several fronts are always housed in Nasarawa State by successive State Governors of Nassarawa State, including Governor Sule, will shock the governor.
He however said that he shall release all of those pieces of evidence when they meet in court.
On harbouring of armed bandits in Nasarawa State, Prof Hon (SAN) stated: “Just as our Client stated at that public outing, your Client’s predecessor, Tanko Al-Makura, once claimed that the bandits operating in and from Nasarawa State were “hunters,” when there are no hunting forests or ranges in Nasarawa State.”
Prof. Hon reminded the Governor’s lawyer that, between 2020 and 2025, Governor Sule has been consistently raising alarm over the “influx” of murderous bandits into Nasarawa State.
He annexed and attached a Vanguard Newspaper report of August 19, 2020 – wherein Governor Sule was quoted as saying that the migrating bandits were those displaced from elsewhere in Nigeria and in Mangu, Plateau State.
Prof. Hon also made reference to a Channels TV broadcast of January 22, 2021, wherein Governor Sule was quoted as telling late President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock that Boko Haram terrorists had entered into Nasarawa State in large numbers.
Governor Sule was also quoted in the Channels Television broadcast as saying that these (terrorists) group belonged to the Darussalam Sect, which had been dislodged from neighbouring Niger State.
Other attached in the letter to Governor Sule’s lawyer include news reports from The Authority Newspaper of March 2, 2021, wherein Governor Sule was again reported as saying that Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen were flooding into Nasarawa State in large numbers.
Other annexures to the letter includes,
a Daily Trust E-Paper of July 19, 2023 – where Governor Sule was reported as saying that the bandits flooding Nasarawa State were those displaced from Mangu, Plateau State, who then moved into the border area between Keana Local Government Area of the State and Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, among many others.
In total, the letter contains eight annexure which have been marked “A-H.”
The erudite constitutional lawyer in the letter further stated that, to further prove that Governor Sule is not free from Prof. Gundu’s accusations, he reminded Dr. Raji, of what Governor Sule told Channels TV in June, 2025 after the recent Yelwata massacre that Nasarawa State has only a few Fulani herdsmen; hence the State could not have been habouring the large number of those murderers who move to Benue to kill, maim and recoil back to Nasarawa.
According to Hon, this is a sharp contrast to his famed ‘there is an influx of Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram members into Nasarawa State.’
The learned silk wondered why this sudden reversal in public representation from a person who had been saying for the past five years at least that there has been a consistent “influx” of armed Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram elements into that same State.
Gundu’s counsel while advising Dr. Raji (SAN) to enquire from his client whether at any point since announcing such “influx,” he has also announced “expulsion” or “voluntary migration” out of Nasarawa State of those criminal elements.
The Learned Silk reminded His colleague that his client, Governor Sule knows that allegations of such nature did not start with Prof. Gundu, as in that same Channels TV interview in June 2025, Governor Sule stated that the immediate past Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, was no longer in talking terms with former governor of Nassarawa State, Tanko Al-Makura, on account of this same issue of Nasarawa State harbouring armed Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram elements.
Hear him: “I went to Governor Ortom to say, what is really happening between you and my predecessor? He said it’s because of this and that, and I said okay calm down, I am willing to sit down with you to find a solution,” Sule was quoted to have stated.
On the land grabbing at the behest of Governor Sule, Prof. Hon (SAN) maintained that his client stands his grounds.
He drew the attention of the counsel to Governor Sule to the comments by
Tiv Community leaders in Awe, Doma, Keana and Obu Local Government Areas of Nasarawa State, led by Jerry Aondo, SAN, in a recent press conference in Abuja, alleging that your Governor Sule has seized and is still seizing large swathes of lands from Tiv people in Nasarawa State, under a so called “agricultural mandate.”
He also drew the attention of Dr. Raji to
Suit No. NSD/LF 44/2025, before a Nassarawa State High Court, where seventeen (17) persons of Tiv origin in Nasarawa State have sued Governor Sule, several agencies of the Nasarawa State Government and the Nigerian Army, seeking judicial reliefs against forceful seizure of their lands and eviction from their ancestral farmlands running into thousands of hectares.
According to Prof Hon, the above suit is still pending, hence he will say no more about it, adding that, Governor Sule has already entered appearance so should be able to furnish his counsel with the court processes in the suit.
