Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, has spoken out about the continuous violence happening in some parts of the state. He said the killings are no longer just conflicts between farmers and herders. According to him, the people behind the attacks are now bandits and terrorists.

Speaking during an interview with Arise TV on Monday night, June 16, Governor Alia expressed his deep concern over the rising insecurity.

When asked who was responsible for the repeated violence in Benue communities, the governor made it clear that the situation has worsened. He said these are not simple farmer-herder disputes but are organized attacks by criminal groups.

Alia’s comments reflect the serious security challenges facing many rural communities in the state. He stressed that the problem needs urgent attention and should not be treated lightly.

he said

‘’This is not the first time these attacks are happening. In this very local government of Guma, it shares boundaries with Nasarawa state and internally it shares boundaries with Makurdi local government. It on the way to Abuja, right by the side of the road. The Yelewata area is a very sizeable town.

The anxiety we started having in this local government spanned as far back as 20 to 23 years ago and how it happened was that the herders clashed with the farmers. This took quite a lot of time and eventually in the last 12 years, it shifted it moved into the armed herders versus the entire communities. 

The farmers were affected. They were every now and then driven off from their homes, their homes destroyed. They had to leave their farmlands as well. Since its been there for quite sometime, a good number of people were tired of seeing the repeat every now and then and then shifted into towns.

Of late, what we see is it is stronger and much way beyond farmer-herder crisis. We are being attacked by bandits and terrorists. This has persisted for quite sometime but the level we have experienced in the last two months is so much alarming”