Rivers
Stakeholders Counsel Governors On Cattle Ranches In S’South
Governors of the six Niger Delta states have been advised against the establishment of cattle ranches in the zone.
A non governmental organisation in Rivers State, the Niger Delta Good Governance Initiative (NDGGI), urged the Governors to shun the plan as it would not be in the interest of the region.
This was contained in a statement released by the group in Port Harcourt recently and signed by its Coordinator, Dr. Philip Ebizimor, Secretary, Barrister Cletus Brown and Public Relations Officer, Elder Brownson Alete after an enlarged National Working Committee (NWC) meeting.
The group which raised an alarm over the plan by the South-South Governors to establish cattle ranches, enjoined them to back out from such decision, as it will not be accepted by the people in the zone.
According to the group, South-South citizens must know about the arrangements of their leaders in giving away their ancestral lands for cattle ranches.
The group stressed that it is monitoring the Governors, leaders and other stakeholders in the zone, and their collaborators, noting that they should understand that the people will not allow the establishment of any ranches in the zone to be manage by strangers.
“If the Governor and other leaders are genuinely interested in establishing cattle ranches in the South-South zone of Nigeria, such plans must be managed privately by businessmen and women from the zone. Only citizens of the zone are allowed to own cattle ranches anywhere in the South-South geo-political zone.
The body further said that, Governors and other leaders should not allow what happened to the South-East geo-political zone two years ago to repeat itself, because of chasing a political cloud.
The group urged the Governors to put the interest of the zone above any other interest as far as the issue of cattle ranches is concerned.
“We sound it as a note of warning to anybody, no matter your position in the zone, that if you want to have a smooth and peaceful leadership regime in the zone, you must jettison the idea of establishing a Fulani cattle ranch in the states of the zone.
“NDGGI must be on the alert and wait for an order from its parent body to move into all the nooks and crannies of these states. We call on the youths of various states and communities in the zone to provide the group with useful information of any proposed site for Fulani camp or ranch anywhere around their states and communities.
“We, the NDGGI with any useful information of any ranch proposed site for ranch anywhere around their states and communities, we will stop at nothing to ensure that those who are culpable and their cohorts to establish RUGA in any part of the South-South geo-political zone in Nigeria will be resisted”.
NDGGI, however, stated that, “We are also informing other zones’ Governors and leaders to shun any perceived motion of establishing cattle ranches in any of their states and communities”.
Bethel Toby