Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has dismissed claims of Christian genocide in the North Central state.
The governor said that the President of the United States of America was wrong in declaring Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).
Governor Alia spoke at a consultative forum on the protection of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs), organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to Alia, “ In my state of Benue, we don’t have any religious, any ethnic, any racial, any national or state genocide. We don’t have that.”
The Benue governor also said that, “We do not have any jihad in Nigeria.”
“If there were any, particularly in my state or any part of Nigeria, I would have been the first to speak out.”
The position of Governor Alia negates the position of several residents and leaders of the North Central State which has suffered several killings including the Yelwata massacre that left over 100 people dead, mostly Christians.
