Killings; Those attacking our communities are foreigners – Governor cries out

Killings; Those attacking our communities are foreigners – Governor cries out

Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia has blamed the recent surge in violent attacks across the state on foreign elements who allegedly speak languages unfamiliar to local communities.

Speaking during an interview on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme aired Tuesday night, the governor pointed to intelligence from affected areas indicating that the attackers do not communicate in any known native dialect, suggesting they may be non-Nigerians.

Benue has experienced a spike in violence in recent weeks. On April 16, gunmen invaded Otobi-Akpa and Emichi in Otukpo Local Government Area, as well as Utonkon in Ado LGA, leaving several residents dead.

Earlier this month, angry youths in Otukpo staged a protest over the deteriorating security, blocking the Otukpo-Enugu highway and demanding urgent government intervention.

Governor Alia said the reports coming from local communities have heightened concerns that foreign-backed elements could be responsible for the killings, adding that efforts are underway to verify their identities and address the security threat.

Talking about the identities of the terrorists, Alia said: “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 quite 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?”