The Tor Tiv has run out of patience. Prof. James Ayatse, chairman of the Benue State Council of Chiefs, has condemned the repeated burning of Catholic Diocese of Gboko facilities in Ihugh, Mbadede, Vandeikya Local Government Area, calling the attacks “barbaric, unacceptable and alien to the Tiv character.”

And he aimed his warning squarely at his own chiefs.

In a statement signed by his media aide, Freddie Adamgbe, the monarch said any traditional ruler who tolerates such behaviour in his domain without decisive action will be held accountable by the Tiv Area Traditional Council. He ordered security agencies and the leadership of the Jerchira and Vandeikya (Kyan) traditional councils to work together and fish out the culprits, and to create conditions for the diocese to bring back the services it has withdrawn.

Those services are gone for now. All of them.

A church walks away

On October 12, Bishop William Avenya signed a pastoral letter and decree shutting down every Catholic institution in Ihugh indefinitely. The list is long: St. Winifred Girls Secondary School, St. Winifred Nursery and Primary School, St. Thomas Hospital, Salus Mind Care Centre and its chaplaincy, and St. Winifred Parish.

The church is not just locking doors. It is pulling out its priests, religious workers, teachers and medical staff from the community.

The trigger came on Sunday, October 11, when fire gutted a hostel block at St. Winifred Girls Secondary School. It was the fourth blaze at the school since October 2025 and the third in four months. The diocese listed the dates: October 28, 2025, then May 10, May 15 and October 11, 2026.

Four fires. One girls’ school.

The bishop said the hostility goes back years, pointing to repeated fires at the school, persistent burglaries at the parish and criminal attacks on St. Thomas Hospital. He recalled an incident at the hospital’s reopening on June 21, 2024, when some people allegedly announced they no longer wanted Reverend Sisters working in the community.

“The attacks have continued, and no assurance of lasting safety has been secured,” the diocese wrote.

The governor’s hometown

There is an uncomfortable detail in all of this. Ihugh is the hometown of Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia, himself a Catholic priest.

That a community producing the state’s chief executive cannot protect a girls’ hostel, a hospital and a parish from repeated arson raises questions the government has yet to answer publicly. Reports on the closure noted that the diocese did not detail any new security arrangements reached with community leaders or security agencies after the attacks.

The cost lands on ordinary people. Students will be helped to continue at other Catholic schools, while patients at St. Thomas Hospital will be referred elsewhere. The diocese has also promised fair treatment for affected employees. For families in Ihugh, that means longer trips for treatment and children scattered to distant classrooms.

The diocese framed its decision bluntly. “The Church exists to bring life,” it said, expressing dismay that facilities built for public service had become targets.

What it will take

The door is not shut forever. The diocese says the institutions can reopen once there is a genuine commitment to peace and a firm guarantee of safety.

The Tor Tiv has now put that burden on the shoulders of Ihugh’s own traditional rulers. Either they find those setting fire to their children’s school, or they answer to the throne.