Alia rejects genocide claims in Benue, says insecurity ‘serious but misconstrued’

By James Ike

Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has dismissed claims that the wave of killings and attacks in the state amounts to genocide, insisting that while insecurity persists, it does not meet global criteria for such classification.

Speaking at a consultative forum on the protection of the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs) organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Abuja, the governor, a Catholic Priest, described the genocide narrative as “fundamentally inaccurate.”

“I am a Reverend Father, so being in governance does not take that away from me. At the end of the day, I will still go back as a Reverend Father,” he said.

“In my state of Benue, we do not have any religious, ethnic, racial or national genocide. We don’t have that.”

While admitting that Benue continues to grapple with serious security challenges, Governor Alia stressed that the incidents do not satisfy the internationally recognised definition of genocide.

“Do we have a number of insecurities in the state? Yes, we do. But it is not a genocide. One would need to go through the United Nations definition for this,” he added.

The governor traced years of violence to protracted tensions between agro-pastoralists and crop farmers, which he said were often misrepresented.

“Have we lost a number of people? Yes. But these conflicts grew from long-standing clashes between agro-pastoralists and farmers. It began like play, like joke, and then grew to huge proportions. But that does not fit the parameters of a genocide.”

He warned against politicising the crisis.

“For those who seek to politicise everything, there is no genocide in Benue State. But we do have security challenges,” he maintained.

This positions come amid international attention on Nigeria’s security situation. The U.S. government previously designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, while U.S. President Donald Trump publicly raised alarm over alleged attacks on Christians and even hinted at possible military intervention.