Politics
Count us out, Gov Ortom tells FG over plans to set up ranches for herdsmen
Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has reacted to stories that he had promised to cede a portion of Benue land to the Federal Government to build ranching for herdsmen.
The governor not only refuted the claim but insisted that Benue as the “food basket of the nation” has no land.
The governor was said to have made the promise to cede the land during his speech at the media and communications briefing on the National Livestock Transformation Plan in Abuja.
However in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, on Wednesday, the governor denied ever promising in his speech at the event that he 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.
According to Ortom, Benue has no landmass for cattle routes and open grazing because the available land mass is used for crop cultivation to maintain its food basket status.
He insisted that the anti-open grazing law in the state was made out of desperation to stop the killings, which started since 2011.
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“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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