Father of 2 devastated after bandits rape wife

…It’s a lifetime trauma, he says

By Jonathan-Duke Ejembi

The saying that “the mark of the criminal is cruelty, while the mark of the survivor is strength” best describes the ordeal recently suffered by the Makinde family of Yelewata, a quiet community in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State. The attack has plunged the once-peaceful agrarian settlement into deep sorrow and grief.

For the Makindes, life was relatively good until June 14, 2025. They lived happily, running a modest farming business that provided a stable income—enough to meet their family’s basic needs. But that serenity was shattered by a midnight raid allegedly carried out by heavily armed herdsmen.

According to various security agencies, more than 200 people were killed in the attack, while many others were left displaced and traumatized.

Thirty-nine-year-old Olumide Michael Makinde, his wife Olayinka Rebecca, and their two children, Oluwamurewa Michael and Aridunu Imelda, narrowly escaped death. Yet, the physical and emotional scars of that night may remain with them for life.

Recalling the incident a day after it occurred, Olumide told our correspondent that the family was asleep when bursts of gunfire pierced the night. As gathered, panic spread across the community as residents screamed and ran for safety.

“I quickly grabbed my son and ran into the bush to hide. My wife, who also ran out carrying our two-year-old daughter, took a different route to seek cover. But unknown to her, the attackers had trailed her,” he recounted.

Speaking in a subdued voice, Olumide said the armed men showed no mercy. They assaulted his wife, raped her, and left her bleeding and crying in the dark.

Since the incident, his 33-year-old wife has reportedly been unable to speak. According to their family members, she often sits in silence, staring blankly into the sky and muttering incoherently.

“Our oppressors left behind a silence deeper than the grave,” Olumide said painfully. “Worse than everything they took from me is the wound they left in my wife —one that no doctor can heal.”

Olumide said that he managed to take his wife to a hospital for treatment. But when he returned, nearly all the houses in the community had been burnt down. He could barely recognize where his own home once stood. The entire settlement, he said, was reduced to ashes.

The tragedy brought back memories of another horrific experience for him. Olumide revealed that he was still struggling to recover from the Owo massacre in Ondo State in 2022, when gunmen attacked St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church during Sunday Mass, killing more than 50 worshippers, including his stepfather, Mr. Maximilian Ogunleye. His mother, who was among the injured, was left permanently incapacitated.

That tragedy forced him to relocate to Benue State, hoping for a fresh start—unaware that an even more devastating ordeal awaited him there.

Before the latest attack, Olumide was engaged in cash crop and subsistence farming. Now, he says he plans to relocate his family to leave Benue and go to anywhere safe untill his next plans are executed, abandoning everything he had invested in the state.

When asked if he would consider moving abroad, Olumide said it would be a dream come true.

Said he: “Who would not wish! But I dont know how to go about it or have a passport for myself and for my wife and children at the moment. All I just want to do at the moment is to leave Benue State completely to a safe place.”

He added, “Anytime I look at my wife, all I see in her eyes is fear, pain, and sorrow. I have never seen her this broken.”

Olumide said he is willing to forfeit all his remaining property in his quest for a safe environment where his family can rebuild their lives.

“I can never forget this incident,” he lamented. “The trauma will live with my wife and me for the rest of our lives.”

The emotional torture their two children were subjected to during and after the incident could melt a heart of stone.

Following the continuous incessant killings in Benue and the rising spate of insecurity in many parts of Nigeria, civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, human rights activists, religious bodies have called on the constituted authorities both at the state and federal levels to rise to the occasion in protecting the ordinary citizens.

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