BENUE, NASARAWA CLASHES: Gov Umahi claims herdsmen, farmers have reached truce

Ebonyi State’s Governor Dave Umah has said that Fulani herdsmen in Benue and Nasarawa states have accepted the anti- open grazing law.

He noted that they however asked that they be given more time to allow them commence ranching or move to states with grazing reserves.

Umahi, who is the leader of the sub technical committee of the National Economic Council mediating between farmers and herdsmen, on Monday, noted that the development came following the panel’s recent visit to Benue and Nasarawa states.

He told reporters, “The cheering news is that the herdsmen in Benue and Nasarawa states are ready to abide by the law but that they would need more time for ranching and support from the Federal Government.

“We as a committee noted that there are over two million hectares of land across 19 northern Nigeria and over one million of them have been already gazetted as grazing reserve and this one million is already developed.

“There is a place in Gombe State that about 375 hectares are developed as grazing reserve. We have 74,000 hectare in Kaduna and there is another location that has over 150,000 hectares of land that have already been developed.”

The governor went further to say, “The Federal Government should begin development of grazing reserves. The CBN anchor borrower scheme that has succeeded in agricultural sector should be extended to animal husbandry, the animal husbandry should be seen as economic venture for government to invest in by giving soft loan.”

READ ALSO: ANTI-OPEN GRAZING LAW: Who are you to warn me, mind your own business, Gov Ortom tells Lalong

According to Umahi, the Federal Government through NEMA should come to the aid of both states, “because there is no amount of the states’ resources that can assist the people in the camps.”

Noting that there is currently over 110,000 internally displaced persons in the seven designated camps in Benue State, the governor explained that “children between the ages of four and eight constitute 70 per cent of the population and the conditions we saw them is not palatable. We owe it a duty to give better lives to these people.”

Adding that the committee observed that governors of Nasarawa and Benue states were committed to peace as identified by the security agencies, he said the “governors shared information, opinions and there is no crisis between them.”

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