Benue rejected Ruga, not livestock plan — Ortom – TheNigerialawyer

Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has said the state government
decided to embrace the Federal Government’s National Livestock
Transformation Plan because it “has other aspects of
infrastructural development”.

Ortom said there was no time his government rejected the plan
approved by the National Economic Council, which has the 36
governors as members.

He said Benue only rejected the Ruga settlement programme for
Fulani herdsmen.

At a meeting with Federal Government’s representatives on
Wednesday, Benue stakeholders rejected the NLTP, describing it as
“Ruga in disguise”.

“The National Livestock Transmission Plan is a Ruga in a
different regalia,” the stakeholders said after the meeting.

But the stakeholders, two days later, made a U-turn in a
statement by the state Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural
Resources, Dr Timothy Ijir, that the earlier decision to reject the
plan was borne out of “uninformed decision”.

However, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver
Akase, Ortom said in agreeing to the NLTP, each state would be free
to adopt aspects of the plan which suited its peculiarities.

He said, “In the case of Benue State, we already have a law on
ranching and there is no provision in the legislation for open
grazing.

“In line with the above, when Benue stakeholders recently met
and studied the NLTP document critically, they resolved that the
plan had other aspects of infrastructural development from which
the state would benefit from.

“Prominent among such provisions in the document is the plan for
the resettlement of those affected by herdsmen attacks, and other
forms of violence, whose property have been destroyed in different
parts of the state.

“What Benue rejected and still rejects are cattle colonies, Ruga
settlements and grazing reserves which were neither discussed nor
approved by NEC.”