Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia has disclosed that 17 local government areas were under siege before the intervention of President Bola Tinubu-led federal government.

He stated this while refuting claims that the federal government had not come to the aid of the people of Benue State to defend them against terrorist attacks.

He explained that following the intervention of the government, only three local governments are facing severe terror attacks.

Mr Alia, who disclosed this during an interview with Channels TV on Monday, said: “If he [President Bola Tinubu] didn’t have an understanding of what is going on, he wouldn’t be giving us full support.

“Seventeen local governments out of 23 were under siege, and then we fought it down to nine local governments. We fought it down to six and now to three.

“That’s a huge milestone… It came down because of the full support we got from the federal government,” he said.

“The last time we had some severe attacks, three security units were assigned to us from the federal government. They came in and there was a huge shift. Those who had occupied the spaces in the local governments had to leave,” he stated.

While tracing back the history of the conflict, the governor said: “Before now, we are talking about the farmer-herder crisis. And now, it graduates from there and became the case where the herders came in but the armed men were amongst them and we tagged them: ‘the armed herders’.

“Now, what we experience generally is that the herds are not being brought but those who are in the frontline carry AK-47 and AK-49. What are their aims? They don’t even come with cows. They attack, they kill and after one or two weeks, and a number of people now come back to occupy.”