Prominent Benue PDP member opposes federal government plan to finance cattle settlements for nomadic pastoralists

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The Peoples Democratic Party 2027 State House of Assembly candidate in Benue State, Bemgba Iortyom, has called on the Federal Government not to bear the burden of investing in individual businesses by establishing ranches for herders.

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Iortyom, who made the call in a statement issued on Saturday and made available to journalists in Makurdi, advised the Federal Government to instead encourage livestock owners to establish ranches by legally acquiring land on their own.

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The former state publicity secretary of the PDP was reacting to the Federal Government’s plan to select Benue among the five states to implement pilot ranching as a panacea to farmers-herders’ clashes.n

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The statement read in part, “As livestock farming is a legitimate private business, those who engage in it must shoulder the burden of acquiring land lawfully and ranch their animals, just as crop farmers and other private entrepreneurs bear the burden of acquiring land and the facilities required for their businesses.”

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He raised some posers, asking if the problem was truly a farmer-herder conflict, why did the proposed solution focus exclusively on herders and livestock?

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“Shouldn’t compensation for the decades of destruction of lives and property of farmers by the herdsmen be a top item on the agenda of the proposed government policy?

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“Where at the negotiating table are the representatives of farmers’ communities that have suffered attacks, destruction and displacement?

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“Where are the traditional institutions and landowners whose ancestral land is targeted to be affected?” he asked.

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The House of Assembly hopeful recalled that the late Muhammadu Buhari-led administration had proposed a similar policy under various nomenclatures but was bluntly rejected by the people of the state.

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He said, “For eight years between 2015 and 2023, Benue people were confronted with one proposal after another supposedly designed to resolve what the Federal Government persistently described as ‘farmer-herder conflicts’.

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“There was the attempted revival of grazing routes, cattle colonies, the controversial RUGA settlements, the National Livestock Transformation Plan and proposals connected with the Water Resources Bill.

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“Benue people rejected all of those policies which sought to place the burden of resolving the crisis on their shoulders, despite the fact that they were the ones being killed, displaced and dispossessed.

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“If the Federal Government wants to modernise livestock production, it should encourage livestock owners to establish ranches on land lawfully acquired for that purpose, rather than seek to annex ancestral land belonging to farming communities to be carved out for government-established settlements for herders.”

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