Gundu Hits Back at Sule Over Allegations of Nasarawa Harbouring Killers

According to Prof. Zacharys Gundu, vice chancellor of the University of Mkar in Gboko, Benue State, 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.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Ahmed Raji and Company, Governor Sule’s counsel, demanded that Prof. Gundu apologize to him for his statement within seven days or face legal repercussions. Prof. Gundu responded by making the declaration.

On July 22, 2025, Counsel to the Nasarawa State Governor, Raji, SAN, wrote a letter seeking a retraction. The letter was addressed to Governor Sule and Professor Gundu. It stated that he would be reassured if the University apologized to him unconditionally in at least five national dailies.

However, Dr. Sebastine Hon. SAN, a law professor and Prof. Gundu’s counsel, responded to the letter by emphasizing that his client would not apologize to Governor Sule under any pretense.

The Daily Independent in Makurdi was able to obtain the letter, which was sent to Raji on July 28, 2025, and in which Prof. Hon. emphasized that his client, Gundu, stated the truth and provided evidence to back up his claims.

He so asked Governor Sule’s counsel to counsel his client appropriately, emphasizing that his client would not disassociate himself from the “accusation.”

The letter, signed by Prof. Sebastine Hon. SAN, said that he was upset about Governor Sule’s contradictory statements regarding the attacks. He said that at one point, he would say that there was a “influx” of terrorists and herdsmen in Nasarawa, but at the drop of a hat, he would say that there were only a “few.”

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“On the aforementioned subject matter, your letter dated July 22, 2025, refers,” he stated. We are Professor Zacharys Anger Gundu’s solicitors, and her has hired us. On his behalf, we hereby respond to your letter dated July 22, 2025.

The direction given by our client is that he only said the truth. To be more precise, he is depending on the defenses of justification and fair remark, among others.

For the sake of clarity, the following information is unquestionable: In order to approach your client as the Chief Security Officer of Nasarawa State, our client addressed him as the Governor of that state. Our client continued to use the term “Governors” for this reason, 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.

To further demonstrate that your client is still facing accusations from our client, in June 2025, following the recent Yelwata massacre, your client told Channels TV that Nasarawa State could not have been harboring the numerous murderers who travel to Benue to kill, maim, and then return to Nasarawa because the state only has a small number of Fulani herdsmen.

“This is a stark contrast to his well-known statement that Boko Haram members and Fulani herdsmen are flooding into Nasarawa State in large numbers.” This was the other astounding falsehood that your client blatantly told that day, as reported by the Daily Post on June 27, 2025:
Since there is nothing like it, the concept of harboring and similar terms is problematic. The number of Fulanis in Nasarawa State is so little that we cannot claim that it harbors anyone.

Regarding the harbouring of armed bandits in Nasarawa State: As our client mentioned at 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.

Between 2020 and 2025, Governor Sule, your client, has continuously expressed concern over the “influx” of violent bandits into Nasarawa State.

There has been a steady “influx” of armed Fulani herders and Boko Haram components into that same State for at least the last five years, therefore we question why there has been such a rapid reversal in public representation. Please ask your client if he has ever since proclaiming this “influx” also proclaimed the “expulsion” or “voluntary migration” of those criminal elements from Nasarawa State.

“The amount of evidence our client has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the murderous 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,” Prof. Hon. added.

When we appear in court, we will divulge all of that material, he said, but he reminded his client of the following unchangeable and unassailable truths.

“With regard to land grabbing, our client stands his grounds, based on facts available to him,” Prof. Hon. said. Additionally, after viewing your letter’s response online, our client tactfully tried to strengthen his position and as a result learned the following disturbing information.

At a recent press 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.” Is there any purpose in taking over farmers’ farmlands under the pretense of a “agriculture mandate”?

“All lands in Nasarawa state belong to the state,” your client declared, in order to legitimize the unlawful taking of ancestral lands belonging to Tiv indigenous in the state and giving them to invaders or some 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,” Senior Lawyer and civil rights activist Dr. Monday Ubani, SAN, wrote in the Loyal Nigerian Lawyer of May 6, 2025, among other things, in a prompt and incisive response.

The Nigerian Army, your client, and various Nasarawa State government agencies are being sued by seventeen (17) Tiv people of Nasarawa State in Suit No. NSD/LF 44/2025. The plaintiffs are seeking judicial relief against the eviction and forcible seizure of their ancestral farmlands, which span thousands of hectares. The suit is still pending, therefore we won’t be discussing it further. “Your client should be able to provide you with the court procedures in this suit since they have already made an appearance,” he said.

We can 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 grabbers and murderers, and he has made no real attempts to stop or curtail this grave threat. There are clear reasons why we have chosen to keep some of our weaponry hidden.

He concluded by saying, “Given the foregoing, we have our client’s explicit directive to reject the demands in your letter dated July 22, 2025. Under any circumstances, our client is unable to meet those requirements.

It is our sincere hope that you will counsel your client appropriately, he said.