The governor of Benue, Hyacinth Alia, has refuted claims that any form of religious genocide is taking place in the state.
Benue, along with Plateau, has often been cited as a centre of an alleged Christian genocide in Nigeria — a narrative promoted by some foreign legislators, international media organisations, and local secessionist movements.
This narrative contributed to US President Donald Trump’s decision to label Nigeria as a “country of particular concern”.
Speaking at a consultative forum on protecting the rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) held by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Abuja, Alia rejected the allegations.
The governor, who is a Catholic priest, based his position on his Christian background.
“I am a reverend father. So being in governance does not take that away from me. I am still a reverend father,” he said.
“As a reverend father, I am working with the fear of God and the compassion of Christianity and humanity. And at the end of the day, I’m still going back to the church as a reverend father and a good Christian.
“So that is for the record, we need to understand this.
“In my state of Benue, we don’t have any religious, any ethnic, any racial, any national or state genocide. We don’t have that.
“Do we have a number of insecurities in the state? Yes, we do. But it is not a genocide. Someone would need to check the United Nations definitions for this.
“Have we lost a number of people? Yes, we have at different stages. If I’m giving you a background of the challenges we’ve had many years ago, we’re talking about the agro pastoralists, the herders; and then we’re talking about the agro farmers, typical farmers.
“So it began like play, like joke, and then it went over and then just continued to some huge proportions.
“But that does not fit into the parameters of a genocide. So for those who seek to politicise everything, there is no genocide in Benue state, but we have security challenges in Benue.”
Alia added that he had visited the US embassy in Nigeria to clarify the security concerns in his state.
“So, it’s on the record that I had an interface with the American ambassador to let him know that both in Nigeria, particularly in Benue state, there is no genocide, unless it’s my description,” he said.
“And the United Nations description of a genocide does not fit within the parameters.”