Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, has criticized what he described as a dangerous and deliberate attempt to twist the killings in Benue into a religious war, insisting that no part of his earlier comments denied the bloodshed ravaging the state.
Speaking in Makurdi after a closed-door meeting with Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, the governor said his words were taken “completely out of context” by those eager to politicize a tragedy that has shattered countless families.
Alia stressed that terms like genocide cannot be thrown around loosely, noting that the United Nations’ definition must guide conversations on such sensitive issues. According to him, many people misused the term without understanding its global meaning or historical context.
Clarifying his earlier statement where he said the attackers “executed their plans religiously,” the governor explained that it was an idiomatic expression meaning consistently, not a reference to religion.
“I never denied that my people were killed. I remain very firm that we have bandits and terrorists who come fully organized to destroy, maim and kill.
I have consistently, yes, religiously stated that their aim is land grabbing. This did not begin as anything religious,” he said.
Alia insisted the violence began as farmer-herder clashes but later escalated into full-blown banditry and terrorism.
He cautioned Nigerian media against sensationalism, warning that misinterpretation fuels confusion and worsens the suffering of displaced people.
“You journalists are great minds and great hands. You are not weapons of mass destruction; you are weapons of societal construction.
When something is unclear, one phone call can clarify it instead of confusing the entire society,” he said.
The governor noted that both Christians and Muslims have fallen victim to attacks, calling attempts to frame the crisis as religious “misleading, harmful, and politically motivated.”
He lamented that Benue remains home to massive Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps populated by families violently driven from ancestral lands.
According to him, “the situation is multi-sectoral. Don’t reduce it to religion. Both Muslims and Christians have been killed. Benue is the most populous Christian state in the North, so naturally there are unspoken expectations, but let us not politicize people’s pain.”
On infrastructure, Alia announced that major road projects within Makurdi have been awarded, with full construction kicking off next week after preliminary works.
He commended Professor Soyinka for his sincere concern and for visiting to assess progress in the state.
