November 24, (THEWILL) — On the backdrop of the raging controversy over whether terror-related killings in Nigeria amounts to ‘Christian genocide’, as framed by President Donald Trump, who imposed a Country of Particular Concern policy on the country and threatened an invasion, Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State took a stand that has ignited a division among his people.
The governor who stated last week at a public function that there was nothing like Christian genocide in his state, has continued to fuel anger not only from his immediate constituency, the priesthood, but also the political elite.
“In my state of Benue, we don’t have any religious, ethnic, racial, national or state genocide. We don’t have that. Is there insecurity in the state? Yes, there is insecurity. But it is not genocide. Someone would need to… check the United Nations definitions for this,” the governor, a Catholic priest by training, disclosed during a consultative forum on the protection of the rights of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs and Forcibly Displaced Persons, FDPs, organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Abuja last week.
Arguing that there is “no jihad going on in any part of the country, even though the two major rival terror groups operating mainly in Nigeria’s North-east, namely Boko Haram and Islamic West African State Province, ISWAP, have declared their aims to establish Islamic rule in their respective domains based on their distorted interpretation of Quran widely regarded to be lacking scholarly credibility,” Alia, affirmed that, “we do not have any jihad in Nigeria. I am speaking to you as a reverend father in the church. I’m speaking to you as a governor of a state. If there were any, particularly in my state or any part of Nigeria, I would have been the very number one person to make a noise.”
He went to disclose that he has even gone to visit the Ambassador of the United States to Nigeria and tabled the same views. “It is 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 and the United Nations description of a genocide does not fit within the parameters,” he said.
But a cross section of Benue people have disagreed fiercely with the governor, with some demanding a public apology and withdrawal of the statement. Since security challenges have stared the state in the face repeatedly, leading to mass deaths from terror related attacks in different communities, many prominent citizens say the governor is playing politics with reality, particularly when available data shows that more than 800 people were killed and nearly 400 others were kidnapped in the state in the last two years in controversial circumstances. And then on June 14, 2025, terrorists inflicted mayhem on the people of Yelewata in Guma Local Government Area (LGA), killing over 100 persons.
In their reactions to Alia’s viewpoint, Catholic priests in Makurdi, Benue State and some politicans have declared that the insecurity in the state amounts to nothing but genocide. The Catholic priests, on Friday said they stood publicly and firmly with the submission of the Catholic Bishop of Makurdi, Wilfred Anagbe, at the US Congress on Thursday, November 20, 2025..
Chairman of the association, Revd Fr Joseph Terfa, told journalists that, “The Nigerian Catholic Priests Association, Makurdi Diocese, stand publicly and firmly with Bishop Most Revd Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, Cmf, who appeared again yesterday, 20th November 2025, before the US Congress during its public hearing on Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, in condemning the continuous attacks, killings and displacement of Christians and entire communities in our land.”
The priests, on the platform of Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association, Makurdi Diocese, stated, “Even though successive governments avoid acknowledging the gravity of this tragedy, or using the word ‘genocide,’ the reality leaves no room for doubt. What our people are experiencing bears every mark of genocide: a deliberate, calculated, and targeted attempt to eliminate communities and take over their ancestral lands. Genocide announces itself not only in the total destruction of bodies, but in the gradual, deliberate and sustained efforts to erase belief, memory and belonging.”
They added that priests had been shot, some kidnapped and others killed alongside parishioners while carrying out their pastoral duties. “We stand firmly with our Bishop, Most Revd Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, Cmf, Pope Leo XIV, and the Tor Tiv, His Royal Majesty Professor James Ortese Iorzua Ayatse, who have boldly acknowledged our suffering and spoken on our behalf. Today, we reaffirm before the world that we are being calculatedly targeted, unprovoked, and our ancestral homes taken over by force.
“As shepherds and leaders in this local Church and in touch with these realities, we cannot remain silent and pretend that all is well, because ‘to remain silent is to die twice.’ Our people are suffering. We are dying. We can no longer move freely. We cannot farm freely. We cannot gather freely. We cannot worship peacefully in our own nation. This situation is not merely a security challenge. It is a humanitarian tragedy, a moral wound, and a grave injustice.”
In the same vein, a coalition 2027 Benue State governorship aspirants in the state at the weekend tackled the governor and demanded an apology from him over the anti-genocidal statement. The aspirants drawn from APC, PDP, APGA and ADC warned that the governor’s view ran counter to prevailing data killings, displacement and land occupation across the state.
The aspirants, ESV Godwin Ityoachimin of APC, Joseph Waya of APGA, Prof. Terhemba Shija of ADC, Prof. Paul Angya of ADC, Prof. Dennis Ityavyar of PDP and Rt. Hon. Dominic Ucha of PDP jointly stated that “over 14 local government areas of Benue State have suffered sustained armed attacks over nearly two decades, with farming communities repeatedly targeted, thousands displaced into long-term IDP camps and ancestral lands overtaken after coordinated raids. These incidents meet internationally recognised indicators for mass atrocities as used by the UN Office on Genocide Prevention, the African Union and ECOWAS conflict monitoring systems.”
“Denial of atrocities emboldens perpetrators. the Tor Tiv, HRM Prof. James Ayatse, had earlier described the series of attacks as a “genocidal and systematic land-grabbing action” in a statement delivered before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They demanded an “immediate retraction of Governor Alia’s comment, a public apology to victims, displaced families and the establishment of an Atrocities Documentation and Response Framework to ensure proper classification of attacks, guide security action and support the state’s push for federal and international assistance.
Like Mr Alia, the Federal Government, stakeholders like the Bishop of Sokoto, Father Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar 111 have denied the claim of genocide in Nigeria, stating that Christian and Muslim populations have been killed indiscriminately in Nigeria’s widespread insecurity fuelled by weak governance, scramble for resources and banditry, among other factors.
Felix Ifijeh is a journalist with years of professional reporting experience. Known for his keen news sense, compelling storytelling and commitment to accurate, impactful reporting, he has built a reputation for turning leads into clear, engaging, and well-structured reports that resonate with readers. His work reflects deep newsroom experience and a commitment to accurate, impactful journalism.
