Dave Umahi, Governor of Ebonyi State, has said the people of the state have no land to give out for the ranching of cows.
Governor Umahi said this in an interview on Monday in reaction to comments made by President Muhammadu Buhari concerning open grazing.
President Buhari had in an interview recently announced that he has approved the return of the open grazing practised during the First Republic where herdsmen used designated grazing routes to move their cattle to several parts of the country.
He said he has directed Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation, to begin the process of recovering land from persons who have converted cattle grazing routes for their personal use.
But responding to a question on the development, the governor, who is a member of the President’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), explained that even though he is constitutionally empowered as the custodian of all lands in the state, the people of the state are not willing to provide any inch of land for ranching.
According to him, the issue is beyond the South-East governors as the people who elected them into power would have to give consent for their lands to be taken away from them for such a project.
“This is not about the governors, it is about the people, so, whatever position the people take in this regard, that is what will happen. There is no land in this regard that is not owned by individuals, corporate bodies,” the governor said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“So, this is beyond governors and that is the truth. People calling governors are making a very grievous mistake. Even if I say as a governor in South-East, I want people from this village, I want you to donate this land, the question is: will they allow it?
“I have heard about three communal crises in my state, and it is all about land. There is a place that I am building a medical university and the people of that village, for a project that is almost completed, went and brought it down. They prefer to have their farms than a medical college. So, land is a different ball game altogether.”
When further asked whether the people of Ebonyi have agreed that the governor should give out land for ranching, Governor Umahi said: “They have said they have no land for ranching. They put me where I am. If I have one acre of land and I am talking about giving land for ranching, I should be talking about that particular land. I can’t be talking about somebody’s land. Yes, constitutionally, I have control over the land but you have to kill all the people to get the land.”
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