By Sunday Iduh
Benue State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mrs Ngunan Addingi has called on relevant security agencies to step up and arrest the leaders of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore as their utterances portend danger to the already fragile security in the country.
The call is coming on the heels of the recent call by the National Secretary of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Engr Saleh Alhassan in a media conference, requesting the National Assembly to stop the implementation of the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law 2017, legally enacted by the Benue state House of Assembly and assented to by Governor Samuel Ortom.
The commissioner made the call Wednesday at the Benue Peoples House, Makurdi while addressing journalists. She noted that leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore was instigating violence by their utterances and has displayed outright disregard to constituted authorities.
“We came to this conclusion when we listened in disbelief how Miyetti Allah openly challenged constituted authorities across the states, demanding, not just the repeal of laws constitutionally enacted by the Houses of Assembly and assented to but making derogatory statements against state governors who are duly elected by their various states,” she stated.
Mrs Addingi described the open confrontation to constituted authorities by the leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore as a subtle endorsement by the Federal Government.
She maintained that the loud script on land grabbing for various programmes by the Federal Government like Ruga, cattle colony, water resources bill, grazing routes, grazing reserves and the recently proposed 108 farming centres across the senatorial zones in the country as well as the call for the review of the Land Use Act are programmes aimed at colonising the country in favour of Fulani.
“For us in Benue State, it is unacceptable. We will not be part of that programme. If the Federal Government has any form of intervention in the agricultural sector, this could be done through the states. But to come in disguise through all of these suspicious programmes will not be accepted to us in Benue. In Benue State, once you want to go into the business of rearing cattle, you must ranch because we don’t have room for open grazing or grazing routes. We will never accept that.
“We are also taken aback how Governor Samuel Ortom is serially being profiled for hate just because he is patriotic enough to suggest permanent solutions to these various challenges. Prominent Nigerians have made similar calls on the President and suggested what should be done to end insecurity in this country. They include His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar and former Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi. They both criticised what’s currently going on but were not attacked like they do to Governor Ortom,” she said.
She wondered why it was so difficult for the Presidency to implement the recommendations of the National Livestock Transformation Plan, despite its approval by the National Economic Council (NEC).
“The council took time to find out the lasting solution to this problem, yet, we watch how key actors in this country are playing politics with the lives of the people of this to soothe their interests,” she added.