A delegation from the United States Congress, led by Representative Riley Moore of West Virginia, alongside the US Assistant Secretary of State and the US Ambassador to Nigeria, has arrived in Nigeria on a fact-finding mission to assess rising concerns over insecurity in parts of the country.
The delegation, which stressed that the mission would proceed without government interference, began its visits in Benue State and is expected to extend its engagements to other states within the Middle Belt region.
The delegation paid a courtesy visit to the Benue State Government House in Makurdi, where ongoing debates over the nature and scale of insecurity in the state have drawn international attention.
Parallel Facts recalls that Governor Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia publicly rejected claims that the violence in Benue amounts to genocide.
The governor clarified a consultative forum on the protection of the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs), organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Abuja.
According to Governor Alia, the security challenges affecting the state, while serious, do not meet the internationally recognised legal definition of genocide.
“I am a Reverend Father, and being in governance does not take that away from me. In my state of Benue, we do not have any religious, ethnic, racial, national or state genocide. We do not have that,” he said.
The governor acknowledged that Benue communities have suffered significant security incidents over the years but maintained that these cannot be classified as genocide under United Nations parameters.
“Do we have insecurity in the state? Yes, we do. But it is not a genocide. One would need to go through the United Nations definitions for this,” he explained.
He traced the origins of the conflict to long-standing disputes between agro-pastoralists and crop farmers, noting that the tensions escalated gradually over time.
“Have we lost people? Yes, at different stages. I am giving a background of the challenges we have had for many years, talking about agro-pastoralists and typical farmers. It began as a minor issue and then grew to huge proportions. But that does not fit the parameters of genocide,” the governor added.
The claims surrounding “Christian genocide” in Benue have generated heated debate within the country and among international observers, prompting the U.S. delegation to seek firsthand information on the ground.
The fact-finding mission is expected to continue in other affected states, as the delegation gathers data and engages with local authorities, community leaders and civil society groups to better understand the scope of the insecurity and its humanitarian implications.
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