The Benue State governor, Samuel
Ortom has denied the report that he had agreed to cede a portion of land to the
Nigerian government for ranching.
Ortom said he did not at any
point during his speech at the media and communications briefing on the National
Livestock Transformation Plan which took place in Abuja yesterday state that he
would cede any land to the federal government.
Terver Akase, Ortom’s Chief Press
Secretary in statement on Wednesday said there was nowhere in the speech that
Governor Ortom said Benue would give land for grazing reserves, the proposed FG
ranches, cattle colonies or any of the related patterns of animal husbandry
contrary to the provisions of the state’s Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches
Establishment Law.
He maintained that the state had
no landmass for cattle routes and open grazing as the available land mass is
used for crop cultivation to maintain the food basket status.
He reiterated that laws were made
out of desperation to stop the killings, adding that the killings started since
2011.
Commenting on the ECOWAS treaty,
the Governor said, “The ECOWAS protocol has not been observed by any of the
ECOWAS countries and basic documents and checks are not done on the herdsmen.
“The challenge for us in Benue
state is that we have no land. As the food basket of the nation, we have no
land. My state is not an industrial state; my state is a civil service state
supported economically by the farmers. When I came in as governor, I encouraged
even the civil servants to go back to farm. Whatever you are doing, your second
office is farming and that is the only thing we are doing.
“The land is no longer there.
What existed in the 60s when cattle rearers come around with sticks not guns
was that we related very well. There was no problem; there was no fighting.”
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