• No apology for rejecting cattle colony in Rivers –Wike

Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja and Tony John, Port Harcourt

The House of Representatives has thrown its weight  behind the establishment of cattle ranches across the country, as panacea to clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

The House,  while adopting a motion on the need to educate herdsmen on the benefits of ranching, specifically opted for the establishment of cattle ranches across the country.

Consequently, the Green Chamber urged the Executive to liaise with interested states and work out modalities of establishment of  ranches.

The House also directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources to liaise with state Ministries of Agriculture to urgently educate  and encourage herdsmen on the benefits of ranching.

The chamber urged government to consider a soft loan scheme for herders, to enable them buy land as incentive to embrace ranching.

The House mandated its Committee on Agriculture Production and Services to ensure implementation of the resolution and report back within eight weeks, for further legislative action.

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In his lead debate, sponsor of the motion, Mohammed Ogoshi Onawo said most of the clashes between herdsmen and farmers across the country were fallout of the herders roaming about in search of pastures for their cattle and in the process trespassing into farmlands and damaging crops.

Onawo said the incessant clashes  between herdsmen/ farmers across the country has prented  serious security challenges for the nation. Besides, the lawmaker argued that open grazing also exposes the herdsmen to dangers, as they sometimes fall prey to cattle rustlers and kidnappers.

He contended that the decision of the government to set up cattle colonies across the country as a measure to stop herdsmen/ farmers clash is a “violation of  Section 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and the Land Use Act.”

Meanwhile, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, declared that he would not apologise to anyone for rejecting cattle colony in the state. 

Wike stated this yesterday, during a solidarity rally organised by Rivers East senatorial district, at Yakubu Gowon Stadium, Elekahia, Port Harcourt.

He said: ‘I am a proper Rivers man in all ramifications. Therefore, I owe no one apology for rejecting cattle colony in Rivers. I will stand by that, whether you are in Abuja or wherever you may be, hear me well. I do not owe anybody any apology.”

Wike also accused his predecessor of selling off state assets worth $308 million and spending N50 billion on the Rivers Monorail, a project, he said, Rivers people do not need. “I will not let the people of Rivers East senatorial district and the entire Rivers people down. PDP is the only hope for this country in 2019. The President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC has failed in all its promises.

“All they are doing is to kill the economy of Nigeria. But, by the grace of God, they will not succeed,” he said.