Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, has told the Federal Government that what the people of Benue need is urgent support, not a state of emergency.
Alia made this known on Wednesday during an interview on Arise Television’s *The Morning Show*. He said that the insecurity in Benue is not beyond his control, but that more help is needed to stop the killings and send out the armed herders causing trouble in communities.
“What we need is emergency help for now. We need absolute support,” the governor said.
He revealed that the Federal Government had already sent in two armoured tanks to support the fight against attacks and that the move had started to bring some change.
“We had a better narrative,” Alia said. “But what we need to do now is to get our people back home, to drive out the invaders—armed invaders who have brought in people who do not even speak the Nigerian languages we speak.”
He insisted that those behind the attacks are not all Nigerians and should return to wherever they came from. “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,” he said.
Governor Alia strongly rejected the idea that he cannot manage the security crisis. He explained that since taking office, the number of local government areas under attack has dropped from 17 to six.
“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,” he stated.
He also stressed that his government is committed to restoring peace so that displaced people can return to their homes and farms.
