Genocide: ‘shut up’ – Fr Kelvin Ugwu tears Gov Alia apart for betraying Benue people

Fr. Kelvin Ugwu has lambasted Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia over his handling of the Yelewata killings, accusing him of betraying the people of Benue.

Ugwu said if the Yelewata killings had not been exposed in the media through VDM, the governor would have downplayed the tragedy as a mere “clash.” Even after the truth emerged, the situation, he said, was twisted into a political tool to benefit President Tinubu.

He added: “If Wike could gather fourteen microphones and confidently tell them he never called that soldier a fool, even with the video evidence staring at him, is that not enough reason to never trust the words of these politicians?”

Fr. Ugwu criticized the government’s attempts to downplay the insecurity in Benue: “In this silly ‘Tinubu gains’ video, if you had not already seen the killings by bandits and terrorists and how both soldiers and Christians are slaughtered, you too would have been clapping for him like the crowd in that hall. Benue’s governor, and all the politicians for that matter, can speak all the grammar they want, call it genocide or ungenocide… At the end of the day, it is still you who will be left to bury your dead. The government and politicians will always try to water everything down so that this initial garagara around insecurity will fade and the international community will become confused on what really is the issue. It is every man to himself. Nobody is coming to help you. Don’t ‘let bygones be bygones’ when you can simply buygun before you get gunned.”

Fr. Ugwu also shared an exchange from an interview with Fr. Hyacinth Alia regarding the genocide claims in Benue:

Interviewer: Fr. Alia, is there genocide in Benue?

Alia: In my state, in Benue, we don’t have any religious, ethnic, racial, national, or state genocide. We don’t have that.

Interviewer: Do we have insecurity?

Alia: Yes, we do.

Interviewer: Do we have killings?

Alia: Yes, we do.

Interviewer: Were people killed in Yelewata?

Alia: Yes, people were.

Interviewer: In Yelewata, were some victims slaughtered and burned?

Alia: Yes, they were.

Interviewer: The area where they were killed, is it predominantly Christian?

Alia: Yes, it is.

Interviewer: Are the killers Tiv or Idoma?

Alia: I don’t think so.

Interviewer: How many Christians have been killed from 2009 till date?

Alia: (stammering) Well… well…

Interviewer: Do you have the number of Christians that have been killed since you assumed office?

Alia: Well… the numbers are verifiable… well… (stammers again)

Interviewer: Sir Fr, with all due respect… shut up.