By Peter Duru, Makurdi
Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has acknowledged that the insecurity challenges going through the state shouldn’t be categorized as genocide.
He made the clarification at a consultative discussion board on defending the rights of Internally Displaced Individuals (IDPs) and Forcibly Displaced Individuals (FDPs), organised by the Nationwide Human Rights Fee (NHRC) in Abuja.
Governor Alia, a Catholic priest, described current claims of genocide within the state as inaccurate and inconsistent with internationally recognised definitions.
“I’m a Reverend Father, so being in governance doesn’t take that away from me. In my state of Benue, we don’t have any spiritual, ethnic, racial, nationwide, or state genocide. We don’t have that,” he stated.
Whereas noting that communities in Benue have skilled important safety incidents over time, he emphasised that these incidents don’t meet the standards for genocide as outlined by the United Nations.
“Do we have now insecurity within the state? Sure, we do. However it isn’t a genocide. One would wish to undergo the United Nations definitions for this,” he defined.
The governor traced the long-running tensions within the state to conflicts between agro-pastoralists and crop farmers. In line with him, the scenario escalated progressively over a few years however shouldn’t be labelled as genocide.
“Have we misplaced individuals? Sure, at completely different phases. I’m giving a background of the challenges we’ve had for a few years — speaking about agro-pastoralists and typical farmers. It started like a minor situation after which grew to large proportions. However that doesn’t match the parameters of a genocide,” he stated.
He urged stakeholders to keep away from mischaracterising the scenario, noting that exaggerations danger politicising a critical safety matter.
“For individuals who search to politicise every thing, there isn’t any genocide in Benue State. However we do have safety challenges,” Governor Alia acknowledged.
The U.S. authorities had beforehand listed Nigeria as a Nation of Specific Concern. President Donald Trump additionally expressed fear about studies of assaults on Christian communities within the nation.
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