{"id":160227,"date":"2025-04-23T11:17:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T10:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia"},"modified":"2025-04-28T11:46:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T10:46:45","slug":"benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia","title":{"rendered":"Benue killings: Attackers are Malians speaking Fulani not Nigerians \u2013 Gov Alia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has said armed Fulani herders who attack the state are Malians and not Nigerians.<\/p>\n<p>Alia said the Hausa and Fulani these armed herders speak are distinct from what is obtainable in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>Benue State has experienced series of attacks from armed herders which has led to the death of several people.<\/p>\n<p>These armed herders had attacked local government areas like Otukpo, Ado, Logo, and others.<\/p>\n<p>However, the governor said these attackers who wield AK-47s don\u2019t look like the indigenous Fulanis in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>Alia disclosed this while featuring on Channels Television\u2019s Politics Today on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>According to Alia: \u201cWe know Nigerians\u2014by our ethnicities, we can identify a Fulani man, a Yoruba man, a Hausa man\u2014we know them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven the regular traditional herders, we know them. They work with cows, herding them with sticks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut these folks, the attackers, are coming in fully armed with AK-47s and 49s. They do not bear the Nigerian look. They don\u2019t speak like we do. Even the Hausa they speak is one sort of Hausa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not the normal Hausa we Nigerians speak. So it is with the Fulani they speak. There is a trend in the language they speak, and some of our people who understand what they speak give it names.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey say they are Malians and different from our people. But they are not Nigerians\u2014believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has said armed Fulani herders who attack the state are Malians and not Nigerians. Alia said the Hausa and Fulani these armed herders speak are distinct from what is obtainable in Nigeria. Benue State has experienced series of attacks from armed herders which has led to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":160226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[9994,331,2465,16973,254],"class_list":["post-160227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-alia","tag-benue","tag-herdsmen","tag-malian","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Benue killings: Attackers are Malians speaking Fulani not Nigerians \u2013 Gov Alia - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has said armed Fulani herders who attack the state are Malians and not Nigerians. ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Benue killings: Attackers are Malians speaking Fulani not Nigerians \u2013 Gov Alia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has said armed Fulani herders who attack the state are Malians and not Nigerians. ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-23T10:17:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-28T10:46:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/sm_1745394941.802702.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"479\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Benue killings: Attackers are Malians speaking Fulani not Nigerians \u2013 Gov Alia\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-23T10:17:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-28T10:46:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia\"},\"wordCount\":261,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/sm_1745394941.802702.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Alia\",\"Benue\",\"Herdsmen\",\"Malian\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-killings-attackers-are-malians-speaking-fulani-not-nigerians-gov-alia\",\"name\":\"Benue killings: Attackers are Malians speaking Fulani not Nigerians \u2013 Gov Alia - 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