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Yes, Benue facing Fulani killers – Alia *Locals recruiting armed foreigners
Hyacinth Alia, Governor of Benue State, on Wednesday gave further insight into the parlous security situation in his state, in which close to 100 people were killed in recent weeks by those he named as foreign Fulanis.
Describing the situation as a full-scale siege on the state, he said the attackers were not only invading the state with increasingly sophisticated arms, but becoming more violent adding that while the aim was to capture and occupy Benue land, the modus operandi remained to kill and chase the people away and return to take their land.
Alia, who had during an appearance on Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television on Tuesday night, revealed the identities of the alleged invaders as Fulanis from foreign countries, upped the ante while also appearing on The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS Television on Wednesday, saying what the state used to know had assumed a “new phase.”
His words: “The appropriate captivating way to speak on what we are undergoing is that we are under siege. What we experience is the armed herders come in, before no, they could just come in with their herds and then to the isolated local governments and then do the attacks and then the people settle down.
“But unlike previous attacks which involved herders moving cattle through isolated communities, the latest assailants come without livestock, but heavily armed with AK-47 and AK-49 rifles.
“They come in alone, wear one dress and stay in the bushes as long as they can, until they do the attacks and then they disappear. After a week or two, then they come in with their folks to occupy those spaces. These attacks are very deliberate and calculated. They come in, attack, fully with the intent of killing and then occupation.
“They don’t speak any known Nigerian languages and don’t even look like Nigerians. The attacks we have experienced are very deliberate and so calculated with the aim to come, kill and landgrab.”
The governor, while revealing that the state government had invested heavily in security, including purchasing 100 Hilux trucks and 600 motorbikes, which were distributed among various security agencies, as well as revitalised joint task force, admitted however that the scale of the threat had overwhelmed their current capabilities.
“What we need is an emergency of help, now. We can’t go to the farm. There is less we can do. Our people want to take all this up themselves—to defend themselves.
“Upon assuming office a year and nine months ago, almost all 23 local government areas in Benue were under attack. Through intensified efforts, the violence was reduced to nine critical LGAs. Now, six of those are in the frontline again,” he said.
Alia, who has been having a running battle with George Akume, former Governor of the state and now Secretary to the Government of the Federation, criticised some unnamed political actors who he claimed were trying to exploit the crisis for personal or political gain.
He said: “They don’t even come to the fields. They stay wherever they stay and put a spin on it. The reality is that our people are being killed. It is left for security agents to intensify their intelligence efforts, and reveal who these people are. Once they bring this out, we are going to publish.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the governor had told his host on Channels Television: “Let’s have the narrative very correct. We know Nigerians—by our ethnicities, we can identify a Fulani man, a Yoruba man, a Hausa man—we know them.
“Even the regular traditional herders, we know them. They work with cows, herding them with sticks. But these folks [the attackers] are coming in fully armed with AK-47s and 49s. They do not bear the Nigerian look. They don’t speak like we do. Even the Hausa they speak is one sort of Hausa.
“It’s not the normal Hausa we Nigerians speak. So it is with the Fulani they speak. There is a trend in the language they speak, and some of our people who understand what they speak give it names. They say they are Malians and different from our people. But they are not Nigerians—believe it.
“This is the second phase we are seeing. The initial ones were with the traditional herders. The traditional herders—we had fewer troubles with them. What we are experiencing has a new, different, strange face, and it’s now alarming.
“These terrorists are everywhere. We are under a siege. These people just come and hit and kill and run back. Where are they running to? The way these killings are being planned and carried out is definitely coordinated; some local government areas in Benue share borders with Cameroon, and those borders are quite porous.”
Nigeria would not be in the sort of socio-political and economic mess it is currently facing but for the cowardice of the present crop of governors, Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers state, said on Tuesday, saying the country needed courageous leadership at the state levels to confront the ugly situation.
As chairman at the public presentation of Sule Lamido’s autobiography titled: Being True To Myself, written by Sule Lamido, former Governor of Jigawa State, Amaechi, who later became a two-time Minister of Transportation under President Muhammadu Buhari, bewailed the parlous political situation where governors could no longer speak for the people.
Stressing the timidity of his successors, the former governor, who was apparently miffed at the rate at which opposition governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), were defecting to the ruling APC, in spite the parlous economic situation in the country, he said such a crisis would never have been allowed during his own time.
Amaechi, who was chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) during Lamido’s second term, but eventually defected to the APC to lead the campaign for the election of Buhari, told his audience: “I asked you (Lamido) this morning, what is going on currently in the country, in Nigerian politics — would it have happened when we were governors?
“You said no. And the answer is no. We would confront the government, confront the President. That’s how radical we were, that’s how our governors forum operated, that’s how determined we were to change things.”
Dwelling on his relationship with the ex-Jigawa governor, who was in office between 2007 and 2015, Amaechi said their working relationship was strong, despite occasional disagreements — including Lamido’s initial objection to his election as NGF chairman.
“We were quite good friends in government. We had our bad times when we disagreed. I made the mistake of assuming he was as radical as I was. So, he was one of the governors I clung to when it came to radical decisions. The last one before we broke ranks was when we all agreed to go against President Jonathan. We formed a committee of governors and others.
“At the end of the day, he went to find a new party, the SDP. We said, ‘If we go to the SDP, we will lose the election. Let’s hang on to this one called the APC.’ He disagreed and left us. That’s where we parted ways. You must never forget the battles we fought.”
“There is no question that there are huge challenges. But if you look at the balance sheet that this President inherited — massive liabilities arising from the very reckless misuse of ways and means — you’d understand why these steps were necessary.”
These were the exact words of Adams Oshiomhole, Senator, representing Edo North at the National Assembly on the state of the Nigerian economy, expressing confidence that the way the President was going, it would not be long before the parlous situation would experience a marked improvement.
Oshiohmole, former Governor of Edo State and former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who was a guest of Politics Today, a public affairs progromme on Channels Television, said on Tuesday, Nigerians were justified to feel unhappy over the rising cost of living and the closure of businesses since the removal of fuel subsidy in 2023, but urged them to be patient and maintain trust in the reforms.
He added: “It’s a work in progress. The surgeon has gone to carry out the surgery. He understands that there is a level of pain — there has to be pain. But the good news is that the patient is healing. Maybe he could heal faster, but there can be no question that the patient is healing.”
Stressing on the issue of the exchange rate unification as a painful but critical decision to align supply with demand, he warned that failure to do so could have plunged the country into a Zimbabwe-like economic collapse, adding: “The consequential increase in cost of living was predictable. But if that was not done, Nigeria was on its way to Zimbabwe.
“President Tinubu deliberately chose to make all the difficult but necessary decisions in his first term to pave the way for long-term recovery. He took the right decision by insisting that in the first term, he would take all the tough decisions — prayerfully — so that as we move on, the situation improves.
“There is no magic to governance. I don’t think any Nigerian who understands the macroeconomic environment that was inherited by this government would expect that, in 24 months, everything would be fixed. Truly, this economy was badly mismanaged. This is not to blame anyone, but to speak to fact. I can say the worst is over, and we are going to begin to witness improvements in standard of living.
“As a governor, it took me time to have a holistic view of the challenges I inherited and to decide, in terms of priority, what to do first. As a Nigerian, I live in the community and among the people. I can say that there is a level of hardship, but things are improving.”
“Given where we are today in the economy, Tinubu will still win the presidential election. The President eliminated an exploitative foreign exchange regime that previously benefited only a privileged few. Tinubu abolished the ‘benefit of exchange rate’ transfer to bureau de change. Today, what he gets in exchange rate is what I get. Eliminating that free rate — which was available to a few people connected with the CBN management — took courage.”
Senate on Wednesday brushed aside the objections of Abdul Ningi, Senator representing Bauchi South at the National Assembly to commence acerated hearing on a whopping ₦1.783 trillion statutory appropriation bill for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The bill for the appropriation of the amount, came through President Bola Tinubu to the Senate in charge of making laws for the FCT, urging them to approve the proposal for the 2025 financial year.
Shortly after reading the letter transmitting the proposal, the upper chamber on Wednesday, harkened to the request of the President to give the bill expedited consideration, noting that its passage was critical to ensuring an effective and service-oriented administration for residents of the FCT.
But an attempt by the Bauchi Senator, elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to halt debates on it pending when the members were abreast of the details was ignored as the Senate invoked Order 78 to allow the bill to scale second reading the same day it was introduced.
Palpably dissatisfied, Ningi, who was once suspended for questioning the financial integrity of the Senate, had raised concerns about the procedure under Order 77 (3 and 4), pointing out that lawmakers had not been provided with copies of the bill prior to the debate.
Leading the debate on the bill, after the objections were brushed aside, Opeyemi Bamidele, Senate Leader, explained that the proposed legislation seeks to authorise the issuance of ₦1,783,823,708,392.00 trillion from the FCT Administration’s Statutory Revenue Fund to finance personnel, overhead, and capital expenditures between January 1 and December 31, 2025.
The budget breakdown includes N150.35 billion for personnel costs, N343.78 billion for overhead, and N1.29 trillion allocated for capital projects.
Bamidele underscored that the primary objective of the budget was to drive an effective and enduring service-oriented administration, with a strong focus on completing ongoing projects that have significant impacts on infrastructure and essential services in Abuja.
He noted that the budget prioritises the continuation of existing projects in the FCT, with the introduction of new ones deemed crucial.
It was on the same day that the Senate also confirmed the appointment of five Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) submitted by the President in March for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The confirmation, which followed the receipt and consideration of a report by Simon Lalong, Chairman of Senate Committee on Electoral Matters during plenary on Wednesday, who urged members to confirm the nominees having passed the screening exercise.
The approved RECs are Umar Yusuf Garba (Kano State), Sa’ad Umar Idris (Bauchi State), Chukwuemeka C. Ibeziako (Anambra State), Umar Mukhtar (Borno State) and Dr. Johnson Alalibo Sinikiem (Bayelsa State).
Tinubu having his way because today’s governors are cowards – Amaechi
Tinubu almost clearing Buhari’s economic mess – Oshomhole
Wike to get N1.78trillion as 2025 budget *Senate ignores Ningi’s objection
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