The Middle Belt Forum on Friday lashed out at the Benue State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, accusing him of “dancing on the graves of victims of genocide” following his recent dismissal of claims that targeted religious killings were taking place in the state.
The forum described the governor’s comments as shocking, contradictory, and injurious to victims and survivors of years of attacks in Benue communities.
The group’s spokesman, Luka Binniyat, in a statement issued on November 21, in Kaduna, said the governor’s stance amounted to “an affront to the thousands of innocent Benue citizens killed.”
Binniyat said the MBF was taken aback that Governor Alia would deny the existence of religious genocide despite a viral video from April 20, 2025, in which he had allegedly stated that attacks on Benue communities were “well targeted, well planned and religiously being executed by terrorists.”
He added, “For the governor of Benue State to now turn around and say there is no religious genocide is an insult and a crude distortion of truth. It is also an incitement to millions of bereaved persons.”
According to the Forum, the governor’s new position represents “a grave disservice” to survivors who “wake every morning under the shadow of slaughter in the hands of Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM).”
It accused the governor of being “timid” and of adopting a posture that appears to defend the attackers.
Referencing the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, the MBF argued that the pattern of attacks — mass killings, village destruction, forced displacement, rape and systematic targeting of predominantly Christian farming communities — satisfied the threshold for genocide.
“The Convention defines genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” the Forum stated. “Is that not the pattern of attacks in Benue and across the Middle Belt?”
The MBF criticised what it described as attempts by officials to label repeated attacks as “clashes,” insisting that the term was misleading and harmful.
“Clashes’ implies parity, a two-sided fight. What we see in Benue are communities attacked in their homes and markets, entire villages razed, children and the elderly butchered in their sleep,” Binniyat said.
“Calling this carnage a ‘clash’ sanitises brutality and protects perpetrators while damning the victims.”
The group expressed concern that the governor’s comments could undermine international pressure on Nigeria to address the violence, particularly at a time when the United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa recently held a hearing on alleged Christian persecution in the country.
“The MBF suspects that Governor Alia is being used to scuttle international pressure mounted on the Nigerian state,” the statement read.
The Forum cited official and independent casualty figures to support its claims. It noted that Benue authorities had documented 5,138 killings between 2015 and March 2023, while independent rights groups and UN agencies had recorded repeated mass-casualty attacks through 2024 and 2025.
“These are not isolated incidents; they are an escalating pattern,” Binniyat said.
It also referenced data from Amnesty International and the UN indicating that by the end of 2024, more than 500,000 Benue residents had been displaced, with the number rising significantly throughout 2025 due to fresh attacks.
“These numbers speak for themselves. Whole communities have been uprooted, livelihoods destroyed, schools and clinics emptied,” the Forum noted.
“To deny the reality behind these statistics is to deny the suffering of mothers, fathers and children in IDP camps.”
The MBF urged Governor Alia to accept responsibility and align his public statements with the gravity of the situation.
“Faith is not a cloak for denial. If he stands by his words, let him secure communities, prosecute perpetrators, allow impartial international monitoring, and stop euphemisms that help the killers,” the group said. ENDS.
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