By Dennis Agema
It is now very clear to every Benue person and other Nigerians who have been following events in the north central state that Governor Hyacinth Alia is a mere haughty, arrogant and boastful man who has no clue regarding leadership. Alia is failing as far as the security of lives and property of Benue people is concerned, but he is refusing to admit his failure.
The Governor has turned into a defender of the Fulani empire. The herders invade Benue communities and kill hundreds of people and the first person who jumps to their defence is governor Alia.
The Governor has instructed his aides to insist that Fulani herdsmen are not responsible for the attacks ongoing in different parts of the state. His appointees on security and in the media have mounted different rostrums of denial. They insult anyone who attempts to link herdsmen with the killings in the state.
What is Governor Alia’s agenda? Whose interest is he serving? The answer is simple. Alia is an agent of the Fulani caliphate. The Sultan is his ‘daddy’. Each time he defends Fulani in Benue State, he receives a pat on the back from the Sultanate. He was sponsored with multi billions by Fulani to win the 2023 election and become the Governor of Benue State. His part of the deal was to ensure that Fulanis are granted free access to lands in Benue State to graze their cattle.
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Recall that during his campaign to be governor, Alia promised that within his first 100 days in office, he would return all the internally displaced people (IDP) to their ancestral homelands. But that was only a veil to conceal the real agenda until the time the Fulani agent would ascend to power as governor of Benue State. Remember that Fulani elites coordinated by former Governor of Kaduna Nasiru el Rufai bankrolled Alia’s campaign with N7 billion. Alia took an oath with Fulani as a binding commitment that he would fully implement the terms of the agreement he had with them and they supported him with the money plus voodoo to hypnotize the people and win the election.
Governor Alia was invited by the Fulani Caliphate to its headquarters in Sokoto on the 9th of March, 2024 where he met behind closed doors with the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar. It was at that secret meeting that the deal was struck for Alia to return to Benue State and actualize the Fulani agenda. It was at the same meeting that Alia assured the leadership of the Caliphate that as soon as he was back to the state, he would withdraw the ultimatum he had reluctantly issued to Fulani to vacate the state with their cows, following the pressure from Benue people.
The first thing Alia did after he was sworn in was to suspend the state anti open grazing law which the Fulani were highly against. The next thing Alia did was to invite Fulani herders to return to the state because their time had come. The return of the herders also meant the return of attacks on innocent people of Benue State. Now we can see and understand why our people are being mindlessly killed by Fulani herders.
Today, no day passes with people being killed by herders in parts of the state. The Fulani have taken over parts of many local governments, particularly Kwande, Logo, Ukum, Katsina-Ala, Guma, Gwer West, Gwer East, Makurdi, Otukpo, Agatu, Okpokwu, Ado etc. The terrorist Fulanis decide who goes where. Indigenous people of the state now pay Fulani to allow them to visit their farms and even bury their dead relatives. Churches have been destroyed; schools have been destroyed. Economic life in many of the occupied communities is in ruins. The food basket is empty!
Alia is proud of his “accomplishments” in favour of Fulani. He promised to deliver Benue lands to them and he is succeeding in doing that. Fulanis are very happy with their agent Alia. He is helping them to achieve what they couldn’t achieve in many years. By the time Alia clocks four years in office, 80% of Benue lands would have fallen to the control of Fulani expansionists.
Attempt to Remove the Chief Judge
Despite his success in ceding Benue lands to Fulani, Governor Alia is an abysmal failure in many respects. Some days ago, the governor gave some members of the Benue State House of Assembly nearly N2 billion to remove the State Chief Judge, Justice Maurice Ikpambese. The faction of the Assembly led by the Speaker Aondona Dajoh accepted the hatchet job and carried out the kangaroo “removal” of the Chief Judge which was overturned in less than 24 hours by the National Judicial Commission, NJC.
Yesterday, Wednesday, 19th February 2025, Governor Alia who was facing the shame of failing to remove the Chief Judge sent well known political thugs who went in vehicles branded with the Governor’s picture to hold 16 Judges of the Benue State High Court and the Customary Court of Appeal hostage for almost five hours. The siege took place at the premises of the Benue State High Court Complex with the judges trapped inside the Chambers of the State Chief Judge, Justice Ikpambese from about 10am to 3pm when the thugs left and the justices regained their freedom. According to reports, the judges had assembled at the Judiciary Guest House to hold a meeting to deliberate on recent developments with regard to the attempt to remove the State Chief Judge.
Reports from Makurdi this morning indicate that Governor Alia sent trucks to pour heaps of sand at the entrance of the Benue State High Court so that the local government elections petition tribunal won’t be able to sit again. What manner of Governor is that?
Now, Alia is facing the humiliation of his life. He is receiving what is called in local Nigerian parlance as wotowoto (bashing). Even those who erroneously thought he is a good man have come to realize how fake Alia is. The level of criticism against him is rising by the day. The veil that covered his true face and made people think he was a good person has been removed and his ugly face and dark heart exposed.
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Governor Alia has been receiving a lot of money in form of federal allocations for the state and local governments, but no one knows what he is doing with the money. There is no transparency and accountability in his administration. The governor awards contracts alone without due process. The private companies of former Kaduna Governor Nasir el Rufai are the main contractors in Benue State under Alia. It is a form of reimbursement for el Rufai who was a major sponsor of Alia during the 2023 election.
Benue State has indeed entered ‘one chance’.
* Agema writes from Lugbe in Abuja.
