Abuja / Makurdi — Benue State Governor Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia has forcefully rejected accusations that the violence in his state constitutes a religious or ethnic genocide. Speaking at a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) forum, he clarified that while Benue faces significant security challenges, these incidents do not meet the United Nations’ legal definition of genocide.
Alia, who is a Catholic priest turned politician, emphasised that insecurity in Benue stems primarily from long-standing agrarian tensions between herders and farmers, not from a targeted campaign against Christians or any other group. According to him: “We do not have any religious, ethnic, racial, national or state genocide … Do we have insecurity in the state? Yes … But it is not a genocide.”
Referring to the United Nations’ criteria, Alia urged critics and foreign actors to avoid politicising the tragedy: “Someone would need to check the United Nations definitions for this” to understand why the situation in Benue does not qualify as genocide. He also said he personally visited the U.S. Embassy in Abuja to correct what he called a distorted narrative about the conflict in his state.
However, his denial has drawn backlash from some civil society groups, who argue that recurring mass killings in rural communities of Benue do reflect systemic violence, even if they do not legally rise to the level of genocide.