Published June 16, 2025
Governor Hyacinth Alia has refuted claims that the Federal Government has not come to the aid of the people of Benue State to defend them against vicious, blood-thirsty marauders.
“If he (President Bola Tinubu) didn’t have an understanding of what is going on, he won’t be giving us full support,” the governor said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme on Monday.
“Seventeen local governments out of 23 were under siege and then we fought it down to nine local governments. We fought it down to six and now to three. It came down because of the full support we got from the Federal Government.
“The last time we had some severe attacks, three security units were assigned to us from the Federal Government. They came in and there was a huge shift. Those who had occupied the spaces in the local governments had to leave,” he stated.
Benue, a food-producing state in Nigeria’s North-Central zone, has been under heavy attacks by suspected herdsmen for some time. The killings have lingered for years, with some linking it to inter-communal conflicts as well as the quest for land dominance between the autochthonous agrarian dwellers and nomadic cattle rearers.
However, the killings in the last few weeks have been without a break. On Friday, June 15, 2025, at least 59 residents were confirmed killed during a night attack by suspected herdsmen who wreaked havoc in the Yelewata community in the state. Among those killed were military and civil defense personnel who fought to defend the people of the community.
Less than two months earlier in April 2025, suspected herdsmen slain about 60 residents in Ukum and Logo local government areas of the state. Unfortunately, the killing spree continued in May 2025 with at least 42 people confirmed killed by suspected herders in the Gwer West LGA of the state.
Widespread Outrage
Pope Leo XIV has since condemned the recent “terrible massacre” in Benue, describing it as “extreme cruelty”. The killings have also attracted widespread protests and national outrage as many Nigerians are utterly displeased with the way the Federal Government has been handling the situation.
Opposition arrowheads Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi have also faulted the government’s handling of the security crisis, calling on the Tinubu administration to live up to its constitutional mandate to secure the lives and property of citizens.
Governor Alia sympathised with the people of the state whose loved ones had been killed, who had been displaced and who lost their farmlands. He, however, said the Federal Government has been supportive of the state as shown in the recent site visit of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen Olufemi Oluyede.
On the history of the killings, the governor said, “Before now, we are talking about the farmer-herder crisis. And now, it graduates from there and became the case where the herders came in but the armed men were amongst them and we tagged them: ‘the armed herders’.
“Now, what we experience generally is that the herds are not being brought but those who are in the frontline carry AK-47 and AK-49. What are their aims? They don’t even come with cows. They attack, they kill and after one or two weeks, and a number of people now come back to occupy.”
The cleric said the suspicion of collusion between the aggressors or invaders and residents of the troubled local governments was not an impossibility.
“It is very possible that members of the state may have been recruited into the external militia. We can’t deny that because one or two names have been mentioned but traditionally, there are some bandits within the territories.
“A thief will not just come into a community unless there is someone within the community who lives nearby,” he said.
‘Killers Not Nigerians’
The governor also blamed the continuous killings on the delicate geography of the state. “We share borders with Cameroon, with Taraba and with Nasarawa,” he said, adding that those who frequently attacked the state come in from the borders.
“They were not necessarily Nigerians speaking the Hausa we know or the Fulanis.
“When to come to the axis of Nasarawa. This is where we have a lot of challenges. There are a number of happenings within Nasarawa State and there were routes where these people come in through any time they are shifted out of Benue. What we see now if anyone describes it as a reprisal, we wouldn’t say no to that.”
Alia said he spoke with his Nasarawa counterpart, Abdullahi Sule, and he said he got some intelligence that “the terrorists were coming into his state through Benue”.
“When I told him that the havoc had already been caused at Yelewata in Benue, then he said probably, they came and made a touchdown in Yelewata in Benue and were going back because he said one person was macheted in Nasarawa State.”
