Amid the rising spate of killings in Benue, the State Governor, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia, said what the people of Benue need is the Federal Government’s absolute support and not a declaration of a state of emergency.
While speaking on Arise Television’s “The Morning Show” on Wednesday, Governor Alia said the insecurity situation in Benue is not too much for him to handle, but he needs the support of the Federal Government to tackle the crisis.
He said that his administration has the capability to end the killings in the state, but he needs more support to drive killer herders invading Benue communities out of the state.
He said, “What we need is emergency help for now. We need absolute support. The federal government is supported. They sent two armoured tanks that came in. Our situation had changed. We had a better narrative, but what we need to do is to get our people back home, to drive out the invaders, the armed invaders who have brought in people who do not even speak the Nigerian languages we speak. Let them move back to wherever they came from and allow us farmers to go back to our ancestral land. Calling for any emergency does not occur here.”
The governor dismissed the claim that the state’s security situation might be too much for him to handle. According to him, his administration has reduced the number of local government areas under attack from 17 to six.
This, according to him, indicates that his government can tackle the incessant killings and destruction of properties in the state by killer herders, some of whom he believes are not Nigerians.
“We couldn’t have trimmed it from 17 local governments in the front lines of the attacks to nine and then now to six, which means we have the capability to do this, but we need help. And that is a fact,” the governor said.
