Nigeria, Nov. 20 -- Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia said on Wednesday that there is no religious genocide in the state, countering a narrative pushed by United States government officials to declare Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern.

"In my state of Benue, we don't have any religious, any ethnic, any racial, any national or state genocide. We don't have that.

"Do we have a number of insecurities in the state? Yes, we do. But it is not a genocide. Someone would need to. check the United Nations definitions for this," the governor said.

Mr Alia, a Catholic priest turned politician, said this during a consultative forum on the protection of the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs) or...