Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, a Catholic priest from Vandeikya LGA, was sworn in as Benue State governor on 29 May 2023 after winning the March 2023 election with 473,933 votes under the APC banner. Three years into his tenure, his record is dominated by a catastrophic and worsening security crisis. Amnesty International estimated that more than 6,896 people were killed in armed attacks across Benue State between the start of 2024 and May 2025 alone, representing one of the worst civilian death tolls of any Nigerian state under a sitting governor. The 14 June 2025 Yelwata massacre in Guma LGA, in which estimates of casualties range from 59 (governor's figure) to over 200 (independent reports), occurred less than 7 km from Makurdi and drew condemnation from HRW, Amnesty International, and the Vatican. Despite a N41.85 billion security budget for 2026, only N111 million (0.3 percent) was released in Q1 2026, a period of escalating attacks. On governance, Alia signed consecutive budgets into law and achieved a documented improvement in capital budget execution to 85 percent by 2024, and IGR roughly tripled from 2023 to mid-2026. He also approved a N75,000 minimum wage and maintained prompt monthly salary payments. However, his pre-election promise to clear inherited salary and pension arrears within 100 days was not met; as of early 2026, pensioners were still owed up to 138 months of arrears. Officials of his LG bureau were detained by the EFCC in early 2026 over alleged N4.6 billion diversion of LG funds. The administration's overall grade of D reflects the severity of documented security failures and the gap between fiscal resources and tangible delivery for citizens, weighted against real but partial governance gains.