Governor Hyacinth Alia tells Sankera stakeholders Benue won't cede "even an inch" of land for ranching, announcing three new military deployments and 30 motorcycles to boost security in Katsina-Ala, Ukum, and Logo.
Katsina-Ala, Benue State — August 27, 2026
Governor Hyacinth Alia has given his firmest assurance yet that the Federal Government's proposed ranching pilot will not be imposed on Benue State while he remains in office, telling stakeholders at a town hall meeting in the Sankera bloc that no part of the state's land would be surrendered to pastoralists without the people's consent.
Nobody will force us to cede even an inch of our land to the pastoralist for any purpose,
Alia declared before an audience drawn from Katsina-Ala, Ukum, and Logo local government areas.
If that must happen, I can assure you, it will not be this time that I am still the Governor of Benue State.He added that the state's 2017 Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law would be "adequately enforced.
Beyond the ranching rejection, Alia used the meeting to announce concrete security reinforcements for the Sankera axis, which has recorded repeated attacks, killings, kidnappings, and displacement in recent months.
He said three military operational units would be deployed to strategic locations: Agu in Katsina-Ala, Anyiin in Logo, and Azendeshi in Ukum. He also pledged 30 motorcycles to security agencies to improve patrol capacity and rapid response across the axis.
Alia's remarks mark a clear hardening from his earlier, more cautious public posture on the ranching question, when he had said only that he would not take any decision against Benue's interests while consulting stakeholders.
That shift comes after weeks of mounting pressure from a wide coalition opposing Benue's inclusion in the pilot, including three of the state's largest sociocultural organisations, Mzough U Tiv, Ochetoha K'Idoma, and Omi Ny'Igede, representing the Tiv, Idoma, and Igede peoples, who have argued that no pastoral settlements should be established on Benue land without the consent of the state and affected communities, and that priority must go to securing already-displaced farming communities before any new land-use policy is considered.
The governor's dual announcement, rejecting the ranching pilot while simultaneously deploying troops to one of the state's most volatile axes, signals an attempt to address both the political and security dimensions of the crisis in the same breath, at a moment when Sankera's security situation and the national ranching debate have become increasingly intertwined in Benue's public discourse.
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