Stop the organized Pogrom in Benue State, Fayose urges FG

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Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has asked President Muhamma­du Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal Government to stop the menace of Fulani herdsmen in the coun­try, especially in Benue State

The governor said that what is going on in Benue is more of an organised pogrom and those responsible for the kill­ings must be arrested and prosecuted.

Fayose said that the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinba­jo, should be allowed to function as President to be able to deploy instruments of the Fed­eral Government to tackle the herdsmen’s menace, pointing out that; “as it is today, it ap­pears that the Prof. Osinbajo does not have the full powers of the President.”

In a statement issued at the weekend by his Special Assis­tant on Public Communica­tions and New Media, Mr. Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose, who supported the new law prohibiting open grazing in Benue State, said that “those opposed to the law are doing so as part of their plot to un­dermine the land and people of Benue State and they must be made to face the law.”

He sympathised with the government and people of Benue State, adding that the Federal Government must stop playing ostrich to the menace of the Fulani herds­men.

Governor Fayose said: “Like I have maintained, cattle farm­ing is not different from fish farming, snake farming, poul­try farming, snail farming, etc. Therefore, if fish farmers are providing their own ponds and poultry farmers building their own pens, while also buying feeds for their animals, there is no reason cattle farmers should not also provide their own ranch and feed their cows without encroaching on other people’s farmlands.

“How can Nigerians embrace farming when those al­ready in the farms are losing billions of naira worth of crops to destruction of their farm­lands by the Fulani herdsmen and the Federal Government is not doing anything about it?”

He described the Buhari-led government’s continuous silence on the alleged killing of harmless Nigerians by Fulani herdsmen as unacceptable.

The governor said; “In May, 2016, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nige­ria boldly told Nigerians that herdsmen killed over 1,000 Agatu people of Benue State then because over 800 of their cows were killed by Tiv youths. The man who openly made that comment was never ques­tioned by the security agents.

“The same Miyetti Allah is now against the Anti-Open Grazing Law in Benue State, vowing to mobilise its mem­bers to resist the law and claim­ing that pastoralists like other citizens of the country have the right to move freely and to re­side in any part of the country.