MACBAN Chair Says Men Held in Benue Are Innocent Travellers

The chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association alleged this week that men arrested by police in connection with a kidnapping case in Benue State were innocent travellers rather than the kidnappers responsible for the crime, calling for a thorough investigation and justice for those he said had been wrongly detained.

According to the MACBAN chairman, the men were travelling through the area when they were apprehended by security operatives responding to reports of a kidnapping. He said the association had gathered information suggesting the detained men had no connection to the crime and were simply caught up in a security dragnet that failed to properly verify their identities and movements before arrest.

‘These men are innocent travellers, not kidnappers, and they deserve justice,’ the MACBAN chairman said, calling on the Benue State Police Command to release the men if investigations confirmed they had no link to the kidnapping. He warned that wrongful arrests based on ethnic or occupational profiling risked deepening mistrust between herding communities and security agencies in the Middle Belt region.

Police Maintain Investigation Is Ongoing

The Benue State Police Command had not issued a detailed public response to the specific allegations at the time of this report, though officials confirmed that the men remained in custody while investigations into the kidnapping continued. Police sources said the men were initially flagged due to suspicious circumstances at the time of their arrest, including their proximity to the location where the kidnapping was reported.

However, the MACBAN intervention adds to a recurring pattern of complaints from cattle breeders and herding communities about what they describe as discriminatory treatment by security agencies investigating kidnapping and banditry cases across Nigeria’s Middle Belt and northern states. Civil society groups have separately called for clearer protocols to prevent wrongful detention based on ethnicity, occupation, or appearance alone.

Furthermore, Benue State has experienced a string of violent incidents in 2026, including farmer killings, kidnapping for ransom, and communal clashes, making it one of the most consistently affected states in the broader Middle Belt insecurity crisis. Still, security analysts caution that legitimate investigative leads must be distinguished from unfounded profiling, and called on the police to release credible evidence either confirming or clearing the suspects promptly. Notably, the case illustrates the delicate balance security agencies must strike between aggressive crime-fighting and protecting the rights of innocent citizens caught in the crossfire of investigations. Consequently, the outcome of the Benue case could shape how MACBAN and similar associations engage with security agencies on future kidnapping investigations.

Bandits Impose N10m Levy on Katsina Farming Communities

In a related security development, armed groups imposed a 10 million naira levy on farming communities in Katsina State, threatening to block cultivation activities if the payment was not made. Separately, armed bandits abducted 15 residents, mostly women and children, during a coordinated late-night raid in Bakori Local Government Area, using diversion tactics and splitting into groups to escape through the Faskari route as local vigilantes failed to intervene in time. As a result, Katsina State continues to grapple with multiple simultaneous security threats beyond the high-profile Rabe Abubakar case.