Vice Chancellor Prof. Zacharys Gundu of the University of Mkar in Gboko, Benue State, stated that he was not ready to apologize to Abdullahi Sule, the governor of Nasarawa State, for claiming that armed persons, including herdsmen, were attacking Benue from Nasarawa.
In response to Governor Sule’s demand—issued through his attorney, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Ahmed Raji and Company—that Prof. Gundu apologize to him for his remarks within seven days or face legal repercussions, Prof. Gundu made the declaration.
Counsel to the Nasarawa state governor, Raji, SAN, wrote a letter on July 22, 2025, demanding a retraction. The letter was written to Governor Sule and Professor Gundu. It stated that he would be reassured if the university offered him an unqualified apologies in at least five national dailies.
However, in response to the letter, Prof. Sebastine Hon. SAN, a law professor and Prof. Gundu’s counsel, made it clear that his client would not, under any pretense, apologize to Governor Sule.
In the July 28, 2025, letter to Raji that was made accessible to Makurdi’s Daily Independent on Monday, Prof. Hon. argued that his client, Gundu, stated the truth and provided evidence to back up his claims.
He therefore pleaded with Governor Sule’s counsel to counsel his client appropriately, emphasizing that his client would never distance himself from the “accusation.”
Prof. Sebastine Hon., SAN, signed the letter, denouncing the fact that Governor Sule has been making contradictory claims regarding the attacks. He added that at one point, he would claim that there was a “influx” of terrorists and herdsmen in Nasarawa, but at the drop of a hat, he would claim that there were only a “few.”
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“Your letter dated July 22, 2025, on the aforementioned subject matter refers,” he stated. Our services have been hired, and Professor Zacharys Anger Gundu has us as his solicitor. On his behalf, we are writing this response to your letter dated July 22, 2025.
“Our client was instructed to speak only the truth and nothing else. Among other defenses at his disposal, he is specifically depending on the defenses of justification and fair remark.
“The following truth is unquestionable for the sake of clarity: As the Chief Security Officer of Nasarawa State, our client addressed your client as the governor of that state. For this reason, our client maintained using the term “Governors,” including the current governor of Benue State, Hyacinth Alia (albeit his name was not specifically stated) and the former governor of Nasarawa State, Al-Makura.
“In June 2025, following the recent Yelwata massacre, your client told Channels TV that Nasarawa State has only a small number of Fulani herdsmen; therefore, the State could not have been harboring the large number of those murderers who move to Benue to kill, maim, and recoil back to Nasarawa.” This further demonstrates that your client is not exempt from our client’s accusations.
This is in stark contrast to his well-known claim that “Boko Haram members and Fulani herdsmen are flooding into Nasarawa State.” The Daily Post, June 27, 2025, reported this additional startling untruth that your client blatantly told that day:
The language of “harboring” and similar terms are problematic because they don’t exist. There aren’t even enough Fulanis in Nasarawa State for us to claim that it is harboring anyone.
Regarding the harboring of armed bandits in Nasarawa State: As our client mentioned during that public appearance, Tanko Al-Makura, your client’s predecessor, once asserted that the bandits operating in and out of Nasarawa State were “hunters,” despite the fact that the state lacks hunting ranges or forests.
“Your Client (Governor Sule) has been continuously voicing concerns about the “influx” of deadly bandits into Nasarawa State between 2020 and 2025.
We question the reason behind this abrupt change in public opinion from someone who had been claiming that there had been a steady “influx” of Boko Haram members and armed Fulani herdsmen into that same state for at least the previous five years. Please ask your client if he has ever declared the “expulsion” or “voluntary migration” of those criminal elements from Nasarawa State since reporting such a “influx.”
Prof. Hon. went on to say, “Your Client will be shocked by the amount of evidence our Client has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the brutal Fulani herdsmen who attack Benue State on multiple fronts are always housed in Nasarawa State by successive State Governors of that State, including your Client.”
“We will release all of those pieces of evidence when we meet with you in court, but we would like to remind your client of the following facts that are irrefutable and unquestionable,” he said.
Additionally, Prof. Hon. stated, “Our client maintains his position regarding land grabbing, based on the information at his disposal. Additionally, after reading the online response to your message, our client discreetly tried to strengthen his argument and as a result learned the following disturbing facts.
In a recent news conference in Abuja, Tiv community leaders from the Awe, Doma, Keana, and Obu LGAs of Nasarawa State, led by Jerry Aondo, SAN, claimed that your client had taken and continues to take huge tracts of land from Tiv people in Nasarawa State under a purported “agricultural mandate.” What purpose does it serve to confiscate farmers’ farmlands under the pretense of a “agriculture mandate”?
“Your Client declared that “all lands in Nasarawa state belong to the state” in order to legitimize the unlawful taking of ancestral lands belonging to Tiv indigenous in the state and giving them to the invaders or to certain foreigners.
Your client’s proclamation “is fundamentally misleading, constitutionally flawed, and legally inaccurate within the framework of Nigeria’s extant laws, particularly the Land Use Act of 1978,” according to a prompt and incisive response from civil rights activist and senior lawyer Dr. Monday Ubani, SAN, published in the Loyal Nigerian Lawyer on May 6, 2025, among other things.
In Suit No. NSD/LF 44/2025, seventeen (17) Tiv people from Nasarawa State have sued your client, the Nigerian Army, and various Nasarawa State government agencies in order to obtain judicial relief against the forcible seizure of their ancestral farmlands, which span thousands of hectares. Since this suit is still pending, we will not be discussing it further. He said, “Your client, who has already made an appearance, ought to be able to provide you with the court procedures in this suit.”
We could go on and on, but these are only a small portion of the evidence we have to show that your client, the chief security officer of Nasarawa State, has known for more than five (5) years that the state he oversees is harboring land grabpers and murderers, and he has made no real attempts to stop or curtail this grave threat. For apparent reasons, we have chosen to keep some of our weaponry hidden.
In summary, he stated: “Given the foregoing, we have our client’s explicit directive to reject the requests in your July 22, 2025, letter. Our client is unable to meet such requirements under any circumstances.
“We sincerely hope you will give your client appropriate advice,” he said.
