Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has dismissed claims that the security situation in the state amounts to genocide.
He gave the clarification at a consultative forum on the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs), organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Abuja.
Governor Alia said recent comments describing the situation as genocide are not backed by any recognised international definition.
“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.
He noted that while Benue has battled insecurity for years, the incidents do not fall under what the United Nations defines as genocide.
“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.
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The governor said the long-running tension stems from clashes between agro-pastoralists and farmers, which gradually escalated but should not be labelled as 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.
He urged caution in describing the situation, saying politicising the matter would not help efforts to tackle insecurity.
“For those who seek to politicise everything, there is no genocide in Benue State. But we do have security challenges,” Governor Alia stated.
The U.S. government had previously listed Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, and former U.S. President Donald Trump had also raised concerns about attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria.