Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia has raised the alarm over escalating violence in the state, stating that the scale and precision of recent attacks indicate a full-blown terrorist operation, not just clashes between herders and farmers.
In an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Governor Alia responded to questions about the worsening security situation in his state, which has recently witnessed deadly assaults across multiple local government areas.
“We are under siege,” the governor said emphatically. “The way these attacks come and the intel we receive, it is a directed calibrated plan and then executed.”
Alia explained that security reports reaching his office daily show a consistent pattern. “Of late, each of those intel we receive, 60 to 65 per cent of it is quite accurate,” he noted.
According to the governor, the violence has evolved beyond local disputes, warning that the state is facing a new kind of enemy. “It is beyond just conflict, it is beyond just an ethnic fight between herders and farmers in our state, it is directed, it is planned and then it is executed, it is some terrorism,” he said.
He described the attackers as highly skilled operatives who strike at night and vanish without a trace, suggesting guerrilla-style tactics.
“For some reason, none of them is ever caught, they come in in the thick of the night, hit, run and nobody sees a trace. So, it is some terrorism that is eating us up,” he lamented.
Governor Alia also alleged that certain politicians currently serving in the National Assembly are involved in enabling the violence. While he declined to name names, he pointed to an interim report from a judicial panel he commissioned to investigate the ongoing crisis.
“We set up a judicial panel to sort out for us why we kept having attacks from within and from without and we have received an interim report. Between Tuesday and Wednesday next week, I am going to get a full report from the panel,” he explained.
He continued, “It is very unsettling because some politicians who are very functional and are in the national assembly and are in Abuja are the architects and arrowheads of not just instigating but harbouring and keeping these people, keeping them in the bushes and taking care of all their bills and buying all the gadgets for them.”
Calling the situation “extremely unacceptable,” Alia said he is committed to protecting the lives and rights of ordinary citizens.
“If they do not like the lives of the people and are fighting for their own political position, I think I am serving the interest of the common masses and it is my right to protect them,” he stated. “So, once we receive this report the coming week, we are going to take it up and take it seriously.”
