Fayose Says Herdsmen Executing Program In Benue

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government to check the menace of Fulani herdsmen in the country, especially in Benue State.

Fayose, in a release issued on Saturday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, noted: “What is going on in Benue State is more like an organised pogrom and those responsible for the killings must be arrested and prosecuted.”

He said Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, should be allowed to function as the president, so as to be able to deploy instruments of Federal Government to tackle the herdsmen menace.

While lamenting that “it appears Prof Osinbajo does not have the full powers of a president,” the Ekiti Governor sympathised with the government and people of Benue State, stressing that the Federal Government must stop playing the Ostrich to the menace of Fulani herdsmen.

Governor Fayose, who declared support for the new law prohibiting open grazing in Benue State, said “those opposed to the law are only 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 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 feed 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 by the Fulani Herdsmen and the Federal Government is not doing anything about it?”