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Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has dismissed claims that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu betrayed him during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Saraki made the clarification while speaking on Politics Today, on Channels Television, monitored by The Eastern Updates.
Reacting to questions on whether Tinubu played a role in the political and legal challenges he faced while serving as Senate President, Saraki said it would be unfair to blame the current president.
According to him, Tinubu did not have the level of influence many people believed he had within Buhari’s government and was not involved in decisions surrounding the trials he faced at the time.
“That’s not fair on President Tinubu. During former President Buhari’s administration, Tinubu didn’t have the say that they claimed he had,” Saraki said.
He explained that the decisions that led to his prosecution at the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the investigations linked to the Offa robbery incident were not influenced by Tinubu.
Saraki added that while he served as Senate President, he prioritised what he believed was in the best interest of the country, even though those actions later led to political persecution.
“I was doing what I felt was in the interest of the country as the President of the Senate, and for doing those things I was then persecuted,” he said.
He further stressed that Tinubu was not among those who initiated or implemented the actions that resulted in the Code of Conduct Bureau trial or other allegations brought against him during that period.
A serving senior Nigerian military officer has appealed directly to President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to intervene in what he described as a sustained and coordinated campaign of violence against Tiv communities across three local government areas in southern Taraba State and Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of Benue State, after armed assailants killed two of his stepbrothers in an ambush on their ancestral home.
The officer, who identified himself as originating from Mbajir in the Shitile area of southern Taraba, said the attacks had been ongoing for approximately two weeks, driving residents from their villages, destroying homes, burning farmland, and consuming harvested crops. He said the two men were killed after returning to assess what remained of the family compound following an earlier displacement.
“Two of my stepbrothers decided to return to see their homeland and were unfortunately ambushed and killed by the marauders,” he said, adding that the wider community had been unable to mount any defense against heavily armed attackers.
The appeal reflects deepening alarm over a pattern of violence that has drawn growing condemnation from community organizations, religious bodies, and security analysts across the affected region. According to the Northern Christians Religious Leaders Assembly, at least 102 people were killed in 33 days during coordinated assaults on Tiv settlements in Chanchanji district of Takum Local Government Area alone, with survivors forced to flee as their homes, farmlands, and churches were occupied or destroyed.
The scale of displacement is considerable. In one of the earlier incidents, at least 15 people were confirmed killed and hundreds more displaced following an attack on Tiv communities in Chanchanji Ward, Takum LGA, on February 1, with victims drawn from six identified settlements. Survivors fled into surrounding bushes and neighboring communities, abandoning everything behind them. A separate attack on communities in Takum’s Chanchanji Council Ward, reported in early February, left at least 70 people feared dead, with at least 35 churches vandalized during the assault. Among the dead was a Christian cleric.
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State-level political engagement has so far produced limited results. Taraba State Governor Agbu Kefas and Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia convened a high-level security meeting in Wukari on March 2, bringing together traditional rulers, government officials, and community leaders to address the deteriorating border security situation. The two governors also visited internally displaced persons camps in Abako and Chanchanji to assess conditions on the ground. Within days of that meeting, suspected armed herders ambushed Tiv farmers in Donga LGA, killing two people and wounding others as they returned from their fields.
Tiv socio-cultural organization Mzough U Tiv issued a statement last week expressing disappointment that violence had continued and even intensified in the weeks after Governor Kefas reportedly assured residents that the killings would stop. The group said armed assailants had resumed attacks in Akate Ward of Donga LGA and in Chanchanji and Amadu areas of Takum LGA.
There have been some signs of military response. Troops from the 93 Battalion stationed at Ada Barracks were deployed to parts of southern Taraba following reports of planned militia attacks, carrying out targeted operations against suspected militia hideouts and reportedly neutralizing armed elements during raids. Community stakeholders, including the President General of the Tiv Cultural and Social Association in Taraba, James Bakah, commended the intervention, describing it as timely and crediting it with frustrating planned attacks. However, community stakeholders have called for a sustained military presence, saying withdrawal would allow militia activity to resume.
