Governor Alia equally emphasized the need for collaboration between government, traditional rulers, youths, religious and community leaders
By Austin Angwe, Makurdi
Benue State governor, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia has challenged stakeholders in the state to remain vigilant, work together to be able to identify and differentiate between those masquerading as herders but are carrying out criminal activities in the state to help government maintain peace and a crime free society.
Governor Alia who gave the charge when he spoke at the 2025 conference on homeland security on the theme; Ensuring Safety and Security of Benue State: Collaboration, Innovation and Preparedness, organised by Benue Public Service Institute in collaboration with office of the special adviser to the governor on homeland security held in Makurdi, expressed worry that activities of non-state actors operating as bandits, kidnappers, herders, illegal miners and other criminal elements have partitioned the state making it prone to attacks, indiscriminate killings and destruction of property.
The governor represented by his deputy, Sam Ode further observed it was becoming rather imperative that the people must learn to live with insecurity basically because of the spill over effect of crisis especially from the Middle East which has spread down to Africa, Nigeria and Benue as well as climate change issues which has forced herders to move from place to place looking for feeds of their cattle.
He said Benue becoming an unavoidable destination because of water provided by River Benue and green vegetation, advising the people to always work together by sharing information, cross fertilizing ideas to surmount the challenges while government on the other hand would step up efforts by especially using appropriate legislative mechanisms to maintain peace.
Governor Alia equally emphasized the need for collaboration between government, traditional rulers, youths, religious and community leaders to identify illegal miners who have become major perpetrators of insecurity in communities where mineral resources are found, calling for caution to avoid what is happening in other places, and promised that his administration would continue to prioritize security of lives and property.
Also speaking on the economic impact of human trafficking, a security expert, Mrs Elizabeth Ibu, explained that with the rich agricultural soil, the state needs energetic people to work on the farms, arguing that if such population is trafficked, children in their prime ages would also miss out of education, forced into slavery and other forms of criminality, adding that the development will weaken the GDP of the state.