Fulani Terrorists from Taraba Havens Burned Down Benue Catholic Parish

Slaughtered 3 Christians, Razed 27 Catholic Worship Centers

By Mike Odeh James and Olikita Ekani

(Makurdi) It was one week of hell as Fulani terrorists burnt down Catholic Parish, 27 outstations and killed 3 Christians in Benue Communities 

Two days after the smouldering ruins of St. Paul’s Parish in Aye-Twar still sent smoke curling into the cloudy Benue skies, Ortom Okuma stood near the charred remains of the Father’s House and told TruthNigeria of the night terror visited his community.

They came at night, armed to the teeth, shouting Allahu Akbar. They fired in the air first, then started burning everything, Okuma recalled. “The church we built with our sweat is gone,” Okuma said. “The Father’s House is gone. Even the chairs and Bibles were not spared. They took away our peace and left us with ashes,” he added.

The 11 August 2025 assault on St. Paul’s Parish, Aye-Twar (Agu-Centre) in Katsina-Ala County was not an isolated strike. According to Okuma, the Fulani militia targeted virtually every house of worship in the area, as well as private homes.

Aye-Twar, a farming and predominantly Christian community located about 81.4 miles northeast of Makurdi, is home mainly to the Tiv ethnic group. It sits in Katsina-Ala County, part of the Sankera axis that also includes Ukum and Logo — an area long besieged by armed Fulani groups.

How the Attack Unfolded

Okuma told TruthNigeria the gunmen arrived in waves on Sunday night, August 11, firing sporadically before setting parish structures ablaze. The violence escalated the next day when the attackers returned to finish the job.

“They desecrated the altar, ” he said, his voice breaking. “They broke the crucifix, burnt the pews, smashed our sound equipment. The heat from the fire melted the roof sheets. It was deliberate — they wanted to erase us.”

By the time they left, three core Catholic facilities had been obliterated:

The Central Parish Church at Agu Centre

The Parish Secretariat

The Father’s House (parish priest’s residence)

Alongside these, all 26 parish outstations were destroyed. Vehicles used for pastoral work were burned, and valuables worth millions of naira were lost.

Safe Havens Across the Border

The Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests’ Association (NCDPA) accused the attackers of operating from safe havens in neighbouring Taraba State.

They come from Taraba, attack us, and then run back to those same villages — villages the government and security agencies know about, the statement alleged, warning that official silence amounts to complicity.

The Church I Sacrificed Everything to Build — Rev. Fr. Versue

Rev. Fr. Benjamin Versue, a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Katsina-Ala, confirmed the destruction, saying the St. Paul’s Parish rectory was set ablaze by Fulani jihadists on Monday night.

“St. Paul’s Parish rectory, which I sacrificed everything to build, was set ablaze,” the priest told media in a press release. 

 “The people have been sacked from their ancestral homes. Kudos to the Nigerian Army for successfully disarming us and making us vulnerable to our attackers. So interesting to see Nigeria, the so-called giant of Africa, with a dwarf military,” he added. 

“The cries of the people echo through the land as the Fulani invaders, equipped with logistics and high-level intelligence provided by military personnel, slaughter unarmed civilians in their sleep, leaving a trail of blood flowing like a river,” Fr Versue added in his statement. 

We Have Been Under Siege for Months — NCDPA Statement

In its statement, the NCDPA revealed that all 26 outstations of St. Paul’s Parish had already been occupied by armed Fulani militia before the August assault. The parish priest had been forced to relocate months earlier, returning only occasionally to keep skeletal activities running.

“Now, even that is impossible,” according to the statement. Everything has been destroyed — the parish church, the secretariat, the Father’s House, pastoral logistics, household items, and our vehicles.

The association described the incident as a genocidal occurrence — a calculated campaign of territorial domination and religious cleansing, not the oft-repeated narrative of “farmer-herder conflict.”

Fulani Militia Kill 3 More Christians in Ukpiam

While the ashes of Aye-Twar still smoulder, another Catholic stronghold came under attack on Tuesday, 12 August 2025, around 8:20 pm, as 18 armed Fulani jihadists stormed Ukpiam, headquarters of Mbabai Council Ward in Guma County.

Jimin Geoffrey, a former aide to the Benue State governor and a native of Ukpiam, told TruthNigeria:

“They were speaking Hausa and Fulfulde, chanting Allahu Akbar as they attacked, killing Kelvin Ekeh, a patent pharmacy owner and Francis Nomsoor. The body of an elderly man, Baba Iorhemba Ikpanju, was found the next morning,” Geoffrey said. 

Ukpiam, 19.9 miles north of Makurdi and just 6.2 miles south of Yelewata — where over 200 people were killed in mid-June — is 98 percent Catholic. It is surrounded by hostile communities in Nasarawa State such as Kadarko, Giza, Keana, and Awe, which locals say are safe havens and launchpads for cross-border Fulani terrorism.

The August killings came just weeks after the July 24 and 27 murders of three Christian farmers in Ukpiam, including Gabriel Vendafan, who was beheaded, with one of his hands severed and taken away by the attackers.https://truthnigeria.com/2025/08/fulani-jihadists-kill-5-christians-in-fresh-benue-attacks/

A Region Under Siege

From Aye-Twar in Katsina-Ala to Ukpiam in Guma, the pattern is the same: armed Fulani militia strike, kill, burn, and retreat to known safe havens. Communities are left without protection, as security forces either fail to act or, as alleged by locals, actively weaken the victims’ capacity to defend themselves.

For Benue’s Catholic communities — especially in the Sankera and Mbabai regions — the destruction of 27 worship centers and the murder of defenseless villagers is more than a tragedy. It is a deliberate erasure of faith, culture, and identity.

Mike Odeh James and Ekani Olikita, are Conflict Reporters for TruthNigeria.