Alex Barbir, American missionary and founder of Building Zion, has released a fiery video accusing Benue State government officials of detaining him for 48 hours on trumped-up charges to silence his criticism of aid mismanagement following the June 2025 Yelewata massacre, where over 200 people were killed.
In the five-minute video, Barbir said:
His organization successfully rebuilt approximately 35 homes for families who lost loved ones in the attacks, fulfilling what he describes as his God-given mission “to help those who lost families who were massacred in the night.”
He proposed a cost-effective ₦60 million ($36,000 USD) project to reconstruct the destroyed local market in Yelewata, but officials from the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (BSEMA) and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs allegedly rejected it.
Instead, authorities countered with an inflated ₦300 million ($180,000 USD) estimate for the same work, prompting Barbir to suspect embezzlement.
He further accuses state agencies of diverting up to ₦4 billion ($2.4 million USD) in funds earmarked for persecuted Christian communities, declaring: “With ₦1 billion, I can build 3,000 homes.”
Barbir invokes Psalm 82:3-4 in the video, calling on officials to:
“Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
He frames his work as a divine stand against systemic injustice in Nigeria’s North-Central region and warns that those abusing government power “will face consequences.”
As of this report, the Benue State government has issued no official response to Barbir’s allegations.
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