Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has urged citizens not to resort to self-defence in response to the ongoing attacks in the state, warning that untrained individuals taking up arms would only worsen the situation.
Speaking on Tuesday during an interview on Focus Nigeria, a programme on African Independent Television (AIT), Governor Alia stressed the need for strategic, community-based solutions to insecurity rather than emotional reactions.
“You need to be trained to understand the dynamics of fighting guerrilla warfare,” he said. “The Constitution permits self-defence, but to what extent? I cautiously advise my citizenry that it is not advisable to simply pick up knives, machetes, and sticks to fight.”
The governor dismissed the idea that “desperate situations require desperate answers,” warning that actions taken in haste, without adequate preparation or training, may end up causing more harm than good.
Alia advocated instead for community policing as a more effective and sustainable security strategy.
“There are ongoing conversations around community policing; I am one of the governors who projected it. With community policing, it becomes easier to identify those who understand the terrain and can be mobilised to join the ranks of the community police,” he explained.
He also commended the federal government for its intelligence-gathering support, which he said has significantly boosted the state’s ability to track and apprehend perpetrators of violence.
“With the federal government’s continued support now through intelligence finding and searching, I think we are going to do even more. We will identify those people, apprehend them, and create a new narrative for our three local governments and, in fact, the state,” he stated.
Governor Alia further linked part of Benue’s security woes to internal conflicts within the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), blaming the party’s disunity for contributing to the instability.
“There is another layer to the challenges we have in the state here,” he said. “The non-cooperation of some so-called major stakeholders, the disunity and disharmony within the ruling APC camp in the state, is quite unfortunate. There are some people who have been disgruntled and are yet to get back into the fold.”
He revealed that President Bola Tinubu has advised APC leaders in the state to reconcile for the sake of peace and development.
Concluding, Governor Alia reaffirmed his stance against self-defence measures, calling them ineffective and emotionally driven responses to a complex crisis.
