Governor Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has revealed a disturbing evolution in community attacks across the region, noting that recent aggressors differ significantly from traditional herders who previously targeted only crops.
“There are some local governments here that these people have occupied in the last 15 years. Those are the areas you hear of constant attacks, because they hit and then they go back into the hinterlands,” Governor Alia stated during a recent Channels TV interview.
The governor explained how earlier conflicts typically involved damage to agricultural resources: “The herders would open the barns, cut the yams, and then the corn, the maize, and then just throw to the cows to eat.”
According to the governor, the situation has transformed dramatically. “That phase has now kind of died down. What we see now wears a different face,” he said. “These ones come only armed fully with their own gadgets, with machetes and guns. So, when they do their own business of attacking and killing and driving people out, after a little while, when everybody has left, then they now come back and take position of those areas.
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