Biodun Oyebanji, Ekiti State Governor, has vowed to deal with any herder that rears his cattle beyond the zone earmarked for them to graze.
Oyebanji spoke on Friday while addressing traditional rulers during the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between the federal and Ekiti State governments for the upgrade of the State Specialists Hospital, Ikole, to Federal Medical Centre.
The governor said it the responsibility of the state government to protect crop farmers from having their farms destroyed by cattle in a bid to achieve the state’s goal of food sufficiency and security.“It will not be good for our people to farm and, at the point of reaping, that some people will bring cattle to gaze such. The reason I am speaking publicly here today is to send a message to the cattle rearers through our traditional rulers.
We will go after them.“We will provide where they would be grazing their herd for them. They should stay where we give them. I have given officials two weeks to get a place for them, they would be taken there.
Any of the cattle rearers that leave the place would face the consequences,” he said.Oyebanji charged the traditional rulers to take seriously the issue of security and safety of lives and property.He reminded them that it was in the local government area that bandits shot and killed two monarchs earlier in the year.
The governor said: “We must not allow that to happen again. It seems we have forgotten and we are relaxing. So I am challenging our royal fathers today, we can do it together because some of these herders are close to some of you.“Please, plead with them.
We don’t want to see their cattle where they would destroy other people’s crop farms. They should stay where we will provide for them.“We cannot ask our young men and women to go into food crop production and allow them to lose their farms to herders.
If some young men and women have now agreed to partner with government to go into farming, it is our responsibility to protect their farms.“What we are doing in Ekiti is to put an end to hunger before next year.
That is why we are providing incentives for our people to farm, so that the harvest can be stored and released to the market next year, so that prices will go down.“If we do not farm, if we complain about hunger till eternity, if we do not produce, prices will continue to go up.
So, if I have the support of the royal fathers, we can do it together.”
