A former governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has accused the incumbent, Hyacinth Alia, of orchestrating the blockade that stopped Peter Obi’s convoy from reaching Yelwata this week, an allegation the state government rejects and one the police say they are still investigating.
Ortom made the accusation on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, during an appearance on Channels Television’s *Politics Today*. The day before, Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, was turned back on the Makurdi to Gboko road while travelling toward Yelwata in Guma Local Government Area, where he had planned to meet families affected by the June 2025 killings.
What makes the episode consequential is its timing. It comes as campaigning for the 2027 general election formally opens, and it has drawn in a former governor, a serving governor who is also a Catholic priest, the police, and the leadership of an opposition party, each offering a different account of who was responsible.
Ortom’s central charge was that the obstruction was deliberate and traceable to the governor’s camp. He challenged Alia to publicly deny knowledge of it.
“Alia himself, the governor of Benue State, is involved in this matter. He cannot deny that. I am not supporting Peter Obi. But it is wrong,” Ortom said.
He framed the incident as part of a pattern he attributes to the current administration, referencing what he described as an earlier episode in which sand tippers were used to block the office of the state’s Chief Judge. These are Ortom’s own characterisations, offered in a television interview, and they have not been independently established in the accounts of the September 8 incident. Ortom and Alia have been in open political conflict for some time, including a dispute over vehicles retrieved from the former governor after he left office in 2023.
Ortom also drew attention to Alia’s status as a Catholic priest, saying it was unfortunate that a clergyman would not respect the rule of law.
The Benue State Government has denied any role. It described Obi’s allegation that hired thugs acting for the administration blocked his convoy as unfounded, and said the state was being drawn into what it characterised as an internal opposition dispute.
The police version is more procedural. The Commissioner of Police in Benue State, Cletus Nwadiogbu, told journalists in Makurdi on Wednesday that his command was notified of Obi’s visit at about 5:30pm on Monday and deployed personnel, including three escort vehicles led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police. He said officers on the scene chose not to use force when a group blocked the convoy, a decision he framed as tactical rather than passive, intended to avoid casualties and property damage. Obi was later escorted to the airport and left the state.
Nwadiogbu said 46 people had been arrested in connection with the incident, that key youth leaders believed to have coordinated the action were being tracked, and that investigations were continuing. He said the police remained neutral and that no individual or group has the right to obstruct another person’s lawful movement.
By his own description, Obi arrived in Benue at about 9am on Tuesday and was stopped near the Nigerian Air Force base along the Gboko road by a crowd chanting for him to go back. He said he chose not to press forward.
“I came to Benue not for partisan politics, but to mourn with our people, to listen to families who have lost loved ones, and to offer comfort at a moment of unimaginable sorrow,” he said.
The NDC, in a statement from its national publicity secretary, Osa Director, alleged that the group was led by an aide to the governor. That specific claim remains an allegation and has not been confirmed by the police.
The community at the centre of the dispute has a documented and painful history. Attackers stormed Yelwata on the night of June 13, 2025, and the violence continued into the following day. Many of those killed were internally displaced persons sheltering at a Catholic mission site.
The death toll has never been settled. The Benue State governor put it at 59 in the immediate aftermath. Amnesty International and multiple media tallies placed it above 100. Reuters reported that federal prosecutors, when filing 57 terrorism related charges against nine men at the Federal High Court in Abuja in February 2026, described the attack as having killed about 150 people. Some church sources and advocacy groups have cited figures above 200. Obi and the NDC have referred to more than 270 deaths. Readers should treat the higher figures as claims rather than confirmed counts.
The national leader of the NDC and former Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, speaking on Arise Television’s *Newsnight* on Wednesday, called for a full investigation and prosecution, and said the party would petition the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General of the Federation.
“No Nigerian citizen, by our Constitution and our laws, needs anyone’s permission or approval to visit a state,” he said.
Dickson said the party had produced a letter from its state chairman notifying the Commissioner of Police of the visit, and argued that informing the state’s chief law enforcement officer amounts to notifying the state authorities. He also urged President Bola Tinubu to intervene, arguing that protecting the democratic order falls within presidential responsibility.
Three institutions have now offered three framings of the same afternoon: a former governor alleging state complicity, a state government denying involvement, and a police command treating it as a criminal matter with 46 suspects in custody. Whether the arrests lead to prosecutions, and whether investigators identify who organised the blockade, will determine which account holds. For a campaign season just beginning, the answer sets a precedent on whether candidates can move freely across Nigeria’s 36 states.