Gboko

Gboko is a city and local government area in Benue State, in the north-central part of Nigeria. The local government area was created on 11 May 1970 with an area of 2,264 square kilometres and, with 358,936 people at the 2006 census, is the most populous of the twenty-three in the state. Tiv, Hausa and English are the most widely spoken languages, and the city is the ancestral headquarters of the Tiv people, whose supreme traditional leader, the Tor Tiv, has his palace in the centre of town. Gboko hosted the former Benue Cement Company, now Dangote Cement, and the defunct BCC Lions football club, winner of the 1990 African Cup Winners Cup. Farming of rice, yams, maize and cassava and trade in its markets support the local economy.