Fulanis’ age-old dream of taking Benue lands being fulfilled
…As Gov. Alia Approves Grazing Reserves, Cattle Colonies, Ruga
It sounds like an unwanted joke, but it is now happening! Yes, Benue lands will be taken and given into the hands of the enemy—the Fulani, the killers of the people of the state. Governor Hyacinth Alia is on a mission to make that happen. He took an oath to give Benue lands to the Fulani to occupy, and they raised N7 billion for his campaign in 2023. Former Kaduna Governor Nasir el-Rufai and other Fulani leaders coordinated the deal.
Alia has been focused on fulfilling his pledge to the Fulani since he assumed office. He is forbidden from mentioning their names negatively.
To perfect his strategy, Governor Alia, a few days ago, hosted the Benue Livestock Summit 2025 in Makurdi. The governor laid out the land-grabbing plan in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development.
During the summit, Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Mukhtar Maiha, revealed the plot when he said: “We intend to reactivate the grazing reserves and turn them into ranches with all amenities provided. We have asked all subnationals to provide land for ranches.
“I have told governor Alia to give 1,000 hectares of land. In all these, we need peace and dialogue to achieve a lot.”
The implication of the minister’s statement is that there will be no peace in Benue unless and until the state carves out lands and gives them for the establishment of Fulani cattle colonies and Ruga settlements.
Recall that during his campaign for governor, Alia promised that within his first 100 days in office, he would return all the internally displaced persons (IDPs) 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.
Governor Alia was invited by the Fulani Caliphate to its headquarters in Sokoto on March 9, 2024, where he met behind closed doors with the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, whom he fondly calls “Daddy.” It was at that secret meeting that the deal was finalized 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 in the state, he would withdraw the 14-day ultimatum he had reluctantly issued to the Fulani to vacate the state with their cows, following pressure from the Benue people.
The Fulani have always desired to take over the Benue Valley and occupy it. The land is lush with rich vegetation. Since the time of their great-grandfather Shehu Usman dan Fodio in the 1800s, the Fulani, who were chased from other parts of Africa, set their sights on Nigeria to take it as their homeland. After conquering many other northern territories, they began to push for the annexation of the land known today as Benue State. Dan Fodio and his warriors were defeated by the brave warriors of Tiv land, supported by some other minority tribes in the region.
When Usman dan Fodio’s great-grandchild, Muhammadu Buhari, became the President of Nigeria in 2015, the Fulani held wide jubilations, believing that at last, their hour to conquer Benue State had come. However, they encountered a stumbling block in their conquest agenda in the person of the then Governor of the state, Samuel Ortom, who rallied his people to stand strongly against the Fulani’s occupation agenda.
As a group of patriotic and concerned citizens, we call on Governor Alia to reconsider his agenda to take the lands of Benue and use them to oil his relationship with the Fulani. He has been awarding them contracts for projects, but we have no problem with that because it is his decision as governor to award contracts to whomever he wants. However, he should not try to trigger an unnecessary crisis within our communities. Our land is given to us by God, and not even one million Alias can take it away!
Signed:
Dennis Agema
President, Network for Transparent Governance (NTG)
Oliver Omenka
Secretary General, NTG
