Benue rejected Ruga, not livestock plan — Ortom

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.”