Governor Ayodele Fayose has declared that while he is open to state governments establishing grazing ranches for herdsmen in their local communities, he will not give any part of his state’s land as grazing reserve for the herdsmen.

In recent times, the spate of killings attributed to the herdsmen has drastically increased with hundreds of lives lost and millions worth of property destroyed leading a barrage of discussion as to what should be done to curb the excesses of the nomadic herdsmen.

“By the powers conferred on me by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the Executive Governor of Ekiti State, I reserve the rights to allocate land in the state to people and we will not give an inch of our land to any cow rearer. Moving cows from one place to another is no longer fashionable,” he said. “It is very primitive, provoking and could lead to another civil war.

“We cannot open our eyes and watch as cows destroy our farmlands. We need to ask some questions. The herdsmen who go about carrying AK 47 to kill people, who gave them the licences for such arms? Or are they above the law? How did they get those guns? ‎Who purchased the guns for them? What is their agenda for arming them? Has the Boko Haram translated to the herdsmen?

Battle lines, drawn.

Adebayo Emuleomo