Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has dismissed claims that the state is experiencing genocide, insisting that ongoing security challenges do not meet the internationally accepted definition of the term.
He made the clarification at a consultative forum on protecting the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs) organized by the National Human Rights Commission in Abuja.
Alia, a Catholic priest, described recent assertions of genocide in Benue as inaccurate and inconsistent with standards recognized by global bodies.
“I am a Reverend Father, so being in governance does not take that away from me. In my state of Benue, we do not have any religious, ethnic, racial, national, or state genocide. We do not have that,” he said.
While acknowledging that the state has suffered years of deadly attacks, the governor stressed that the incidents should not be categorized as genocide as defined by the United Nations.
“Do we have insecurity in the state? Yes, we do. But it is not a genocide. One would need to go through the United Nations definitions for this,” he explained.
He traced the protracted crisis to tensions between agro-pastoralists and crop farmers, noting that the conflict escalated gradually but still does not fit the parameters of genocide.
“Have we lost people? Yes, at different stages. I’m giving a background of the challenges we’ve had for many years — talking about agro-pastoralists and typical farmers. It began like a minor issue and then grew to huge proportions. But that does not fit the parameters of a genocide,” he said.
Alia cautioned stakeholders against exaggerating the situation for political purposes.
“For those who seek to politicize everything, there is no genocide in Benue State. But we do have security challenges,” he stated.
