Kogi State Government on Friday signed and presented a letter authorising the Federal Government to begin the proposed cattle colony initiative on 15,000 hectares of land in the state.
The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, said the people of his state were 100 per cent in support of the cattle colony programme of the Federal Government, adding that the state was ready to pilot the initiative.
Bello, who presented the authorisation letter to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, in Abuja, also stated that there was no need for anti-open grazing law in the state.
He said the land for the programme was provided by two local government areas in the state and noted that the state government had commenced the process for the payment of compensation to affected individuals.
He said, “We are here in continuation of our efforts as a state to key into the cattle colony programme of the Federal Government which is anchored by this ministry. This is to show our interest and readiness for this programme. The people of Kogi State have accepted this programme 100 per cent.
“We are ready to pilot the programme and our people have been well sensitised about it. We have got 10,000 hectares of land in Ajaokuta LGA and 5,000 hectares in Adavi LGA for this programme and we are here to convey this message in a written letter.”
Bello added, “We are confident that this will add to the economic well-being of our people, for it will accommodate our youths, the Fulani herdsmen and our farmers. We hope that more LGAs will accept this programme.”
On what he thinks about the anti-open grazing law, the governor said, “We don’t need any law to ban open grazing.”
Asked if the state would compensate owners of the land that will be used for the cattle colonies, Bello replied, “The compensation process is ongoing and they will be adequately compensated.”
In his response, Ogbeh commended the Kogi State Government for providing 15,000 hectares of land for the cattle colony initiative and insisted that the Federal Government would not seize any land from any state for the programme.
The minister said 15 other states had shown interest and expressed hope that many others would see the reason why the cattle colony initiative was the right step to curbing the clashes between herdsmen and farmers across the country.
Later, in an interview with State House correspondents after joining President Muhammadu Buhari for Jumat at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Bello described people angry with the President’s style of leadership as beneficiaries of crime and criminality.
The governor was reacting to the position of members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, who told Buhari on Thursday that the enormous goodwill he had when he assumed office in 2015 was being fast depleted by some “glaring failures” of his government.
But the governor said only looters and those who were benefiting from the violence that was being unleashed on the country before the inception of the present administration were the ones angry with Buhari.
He said, “Yes. I followed it (CBCN’s statement) keenly and one of the key points there was that Nigerians are angry. Yes, it is very true that Nigerians are angry but the question is who are (in) this category of Nigerians who are angry?
“The category of Nigerians that are angry are those who used private jets to cart away Nigeria’s money in dollars out of the country to South Africa.”
