Herdsmen: We don’t have land for cattle colonies – Taraba govt

The Taraba State Government on Wednesday said the state has no land for cattle colonies as is being proposed by the Federal Government.

The state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Yusufu Akirikwen, disclosed this in an exclusive interview in Jalingo.

Akirikwen said the state government has enacted a law for the establishment of ranches and called on the Federal Government to support the implementation of the law, which is billed to take effect January 24.

He noted that the Federal Government has a lot of responsibilities to cater for at the federal level and should support state governors to implement the ranching system, which he described as the world’s best practice of cattle rearing.

“The truth of the matter is that the idea of cattle colony is still not very clear to most Nigerians.

“What is cattle colony? We have been colonised by the colonial masters and now we will be colonised by cows?

“Where would the Federal Government get land for cattle colonies? Would they sit there in Abuja and acquire lands across the states of the federation for cattle colonies? And whose land would they acquire?

“We have enacted a law for ranching here in Taraba, but we are not acquiring land for people. People are going to buy land to ranch their animals. Just like farmers buy land to do their farming business, people are going to buy land and do their ranching business,” he said

According to him, the state government has put in place implementation mechanisms at various levels, calling on the Federal Government to support Taraba with enough security for the smooth implementation of the law. – Punch.