Alia rules out ceding Benue land for federal ranching pilot

Governor Hyacinth Alia has said no part of Benue State will be handed over to pastoralists for ranching without the agreement of his administration and the people. He made the statement at a town hall meeting with stakeholders from the Sankera bloc, which covers the Katsina-Ala, Ukum and Logo local government areas, telling them that nobody would force the state to cede an inch of its land, and that it would not happen while he remained governor.

The remarks come as the federal government advances a National Ranching Policy intended to reduce the farmer-herder violence that has killed and displaced people across the middle belt. Benue is one of the states named for the pilot phase, which the federal government has said would begin in Plateau before extending to Benue, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Adamawa and the Federal Capital Territory.

Alia's position mirrors that of the state's main sociocultural organisations. Mzough U Tiv, Ochetoha K'Idoma and Omi Ny'Igede, speaking for the Tiv, Idoma and Igede peoples, rejected Benue's inclusion in the pilot earlier in August, arguing that communities are still displaced by insecurity and that securing them should come before any new pastoral settlement.