Tuesday, June 17, 2025 - The governor of Benue state, Hyacinth Alia, has bemoaned the wanton k!llings in some parts of his state, describing the attacks as being carried out by bandits and terrorists and not a mere farmer-herders crisis.
In a chat with Arise TV on Monday night June 16, Alia was
asked which group was responsible for the several attacks. Responding, he said
‘'This is
not the first time these attacks are happening. In this very local government
of Guma, it shares boundaries with Nasarawa state and internally it shares
boundaries with Makurdi local government. It on the way to Abuja, right by the
side of the road. The Yelewata area is a very sizeable town.
The anxiety
we started having in this local government spanned as far back as 20 to 23
years ago and how it happened was that the herders clashed with the farmers.
This took quite a lot of time and eventually in the last 12 years, it shifted
it moved into the armed herders versus the entire communities.
The farmers
were affected. They were every now and then driven off from their homes, their
homes destroyed. They had to leave their farmlands as well. Since its been
there for quite sometime, a good number of people were tired of seeing the
repeat every now and then and then shifted into towns.
Of late, what we see is it is stronger and much way beyond farmer-herder crisis. We are being attacked by bandits and terrorists. This has persisted for quite sometime but the level we have experienced in the last two months is so much alarming''
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