Armed men who have been attacking Benue communities in the last two months are foreigners, Governor Hyacinth Alia said last night.
According to him, 73 bodies were recovered in the latest round of attacks by the insurgents who swarmed Ukum, Logo and Katsina-Ala local government areas.
He explained that the attackers find their way into the communities in their hundreds on motorbikes, armed with “AK-47, AK-49 and machetes”.
The governor revealed that apart from Ukum, Logo and Katsina-Ala LGAs where 72 persons were killed by the invaders, three other councils – Kwande, Guma, and Gwer West – are now under a deadly siege.
Speaking on a television programme, Alia said: “These folks come in, fully armed with AK-47, AK-49. They don’t bear the Nigerian look, and they don’t speak what we speak.
“Their Hausa is one sort of Hausa, not the normal Hausa we Nigerians speak.
“Our people who have witnessed the attacks say they are Malians and different forms of people, but they are not Nigerians.”
He said the “terrorists” operated from cells in Nasarawa and the Nigeria-Cameroon border near Kwande LGA, exploiting porous borders.
“They come in as they kill, as they maim, as they push people away. They just keep killing, and then they run back,” Alia said, emphasising their coordinated strategy.
The governor said the latest attacks, which turned Good Friday into a “Black Friday,” saw villages in the Sankera axis surrounded at night.
“They surrounded a number of villages. They were ready, just willing to take anything walking or breathing out. Anything on their way is cleared.
“By morning, 72 deaths were confirmed—29 in Ukum, 27 in Logo, three in Katsina-Ala, and others in hospitals—along with countless injuries and displaced residents,” Alia recounted.
Alia highlighted that Ukum, Logo, Katsina-Ala, Kwande, Guma, and Gwer-West of the state’s 23 LGAs are also now on the red line.
“They grab the land, they chase the people out, and they stay in the land. That’s what’s going on because there are some local governments here, and these people have occupied in the last 15 years.
“These occupied areas serve as bases for repeated attacks. Those are the areas you hear of, constant attacks, because they hit and then they go back into the local government hinterlands.
“The attackers also target food security, with herders in their group destroying stored crops. They would now open the barns, destroy the food, cut the yams and whatever. They cut the guinea corn and maize and throw them to the cows to eat,” Alia explained.
Governor backs community policing
Alia said the attackers swarm the communities on bikes, stressing the need to empower the people to defend themselves.
“The terrorists come not just in their 50s but in hundreds, one, two and three hundred, on motorbikes, one motorbike carrying three or four people.
“That’s a lot of terrorists just cruising in. Armed with sophisticated weapons, they outmatch local defences, including the Benue State Civil Protection Guards, who lack heavy weaponry.
“The civil protection guards are also around, but they don’t carry heavy gadgets. The law does not permit them to do this.”
Alia advocated community policing to counter the threat, citing the overstretched state of security agencies.
“The uniform people alone are overstretched. The locals are telling us, we want to go and protect our turf,” he said, supporting calls for self-defence but cautioning against vigilantism.
The governor urged the Federal Government to establish special security operational bases at the borders and equip the locals.
He said that the state has, on its part, provided 100 vehicles and 600 motorbikes for security agencies, but stressed the need for more federal support, including collaboration with the NSA.
