The massacre was a surreptitious operation of the Nigerian army to avenge the killing of 19 soldiers, whose mutilated bodies were found on 12 October 2001, near some Tiv villages in Benue State.

The massacre took place in villages including Gbeji, Vaase, Anyiin, Iorja, Ugba, Tse-Adoor, Sankera, Kyado and Zaki-Biam.

However, on 6 November 2007, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Luka Yusuf, publicly offered an apology to the people of Benue State for the killings.

[7] President Umaru Yar'Adua also visited Benue State to personally apologize on behalf of the federal government of Nigeria.

According to locals, the murders were prompted by previous incidents in which armed men in military uniforms attacked several Tiv communities.

There was a strong suspicion among the Tiv that elements of the military were backing their Jukun rivals, with whom they have had a reoccurring conflict over land, indigeneship, economic and political power.

In fact, a Wikileaks telegram cable dated 26 July 2007 emanating from Abuja said Retired Lt. General Victor Malu, a Tiv from Benue, accused Danjuma of leading the onslaught on Zaki-Biam.

For instance, on 6 October 2001, the soldiers came to Kyado, a town 16 kilometres across the border into Benue State and attempted to abduct some men but were resisted.

[6] On 7 October 2001, another border town, Abako, in Benue State, was burnt down by youths dressed in army uniform.

In November 2000, soldiers from the 3rd Motorized Division of the Nigerian Army, Takum invaded the Tiv in Moon District, which the Abdulkareem Adisa Panel had excised to Taraba State in 1995.

Again, the Tiv accused soldiers drawn from the 4 Motorized battalion of the Nigerian army, Takum, the home of Lt. Gen. Danjuma, drafted to Kashimbila area of leading the attacks by the Jukun on them.

A prominent Tiv man and former cabinet minister, Paul Unongo, wrote a petition to President Olusegun Obasanjo.

They based their opinions on the facts that the victims were in private pickup trucks and not military vehicles and some of them were without official Nigerian army numbers.

Government response also gave credence to this view as they put forward varying numbers of soldiers killed in different official statements.

While those responsible would have obviously been on the run, helpless villagers were brutally and summarily murdered in cold blood, and their properties and buildings decimated.

It was in Gbeji that a survivor recounted how he saw a soldier wearing a T-shirt with the inscription, "Operation No Living Thing", that he escaped.

Yet, showed a distinction in the actions of the soldiers deployed to the area from Makurdi, the Benue State capital, and Wukari and Yola on the other hand.

The soldiers surrounded the biggest yam market in the world and as buyers and sellers panicked, they opened fire.

A columnist with National Accord Newspaper, Emmanuel Yawe, who met Malu's mother before her death recounted the event.

Human Rights Watch concluded that the soldiers must certainly have killed tens of unarmed civilians and that figures of several hundred dead are entirely possible.

[14][15] Following recommendations from several civil society organizations, both local and international, President Olusegun Obasanjo, reluctantly, set up the Justice Okechukwu Opene Judicial Commission of Inquiry into inter-communal conflict in Benue, Nassarawa, Plateau and Taraba States.

[16][17] Months after the massacre, a Tiv activist, Alexander Gaadi, led 13 other victims: Peter Orngu, Terfa Akaagba, Anongo Unishigh, Ngunengen Adura, Jabi Adula, Emelu Adula, Elizabeth Aoughakaa, Andrew Juntu, Azenda Igo, Anange Agashia, Mbakesen Ayatse, Mbayemen Masewuan, and Zaki Kaduna Mazan with a team of lawyers, including, Messrs Sabastine Hon, Ocha Ulegede and Chris Alashi sued the federal government of Nigeria at the Federal High Court, Enugu.

[18] Following Gaadi's death, the then Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, reportedly initiated moves to receive the judgment debt.

However, lawyers to the plaintiffs wrote a petition to President Goodluck Jonathan, cautioning him to avoid paying twice since neither Governor Suswam nor the Benue State Government was a party to the case.

They countered claims by the Attorney General for the Federation and Minister for Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, that Alexander Gaadi, the lead plaintiff gave a mandate to Governor Suswam to collect the Judgement debt.

[19] Prominent Nigerian lawyers like Itsay Sagay and Mike Ozekhome joined their voices in asking President Jonathan not to pay the restitution to the Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam.