The move by the Federal government to take away land from the original owners to establish RUGA settlement for Fulani herdsmen on Monday faced a stiff rejection by the Taraba State chapters of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
While the youth group led by the state President of NYCN, Udi Adamu, staged a peaceful protest against the policy in Jalingo the state capital, the state CAN Chairman, Innocent Solomon, in a Press statement in Jalingo said the policy was unacceptable.
Solomon said the policy of the Federal Government to take away land from poor citizens and ethnic nationalities to give away to strangers in whatever name was condemnable and should be resisted by Nigerians.
He stated that the Buhari-led Federal Government had demonstrated sufficient evidence to prove that it lacked the political will to stop the armed herdsmen on rampage all over the country, attacking local farmers in order to confiscate their ancestral lands and turn them into cattle colonies.
“It is sad that a sitting President could allow his citizens to be killed and sacked from their ancestral lands with the intention to favour an ethnic group without sustained effort to curb the trend, but rather promote policies to that would further subjugate his citizens,” Solomon added.
He said the plan was “totally” against the spirit by which Nigerians elected him to that exalted office, adding that it was a breach of trust with the Nigerian people.
“The forceful conversion of our lands to RUGA settlements is callous, unconstitutional and capable of igniting war in the country,” the statement read.
The statement called on President Buhari to urgently redeem his image as a father by ending the wanton destruction of lives and properties across the country by armed militia and also stop the attempt to forcefully take away lands from their owners in the name of RUGA settlements.
Speaking to journalists during the protest, the youth leader, Udi Adamu, said the RUGA settlement policy was a misplaced priority in the face of poverty, insecurity, armed robbery, banditry and increasing unemployment facing the country.
The group argued that the Ruga settlement scheme was a threat to the cordial existence of tribes in the state. According to the youth leader, most herdsmen attacking farming communities in the state were alien to Taraba and were looking for opportunity to grab land from the original inhabitants, and that allowing the policy to sail through would rather promote crisis in the state.
“We the youth of Taraba State are in support of the Ranching law enacted in the state which is the best option of settling herder/farmer crisis and globally accepted best practice of animal rearing.
“The RUGA scheme is suspicious and we call on Governor Darius Ishaku to enforce the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law 2017 for the sake of peace and harmonious coexistence between herders and farmers,” the group insisted.
