Anti-open Grazing Law: Your Attack On Us Devious, Southern Governors Tell el-Rufai

The chairman, Southern Governors’ Forum and Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has faulted the comments attributed to the Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, attacking the Southern governors for the enactment of Anti-open Grazing Law in their domains.

El-Rufai who had chided the Governors of states in the South for enacting Anti-Open Grazing Law described the law as “not implementable”.

He further accused them of “politicising” the herders/farmers crisis, which led the states to decide on making law”.

Reacting to the statement, Akeredolu, who noted that if Governor el-Rufai was properly quoted and his views not misrepresented, said he “is struggling hard to export banditry to the South under an expressed opinion that is laced with mischief.”

The Southern Governors’ Forum chairman, in a statement issued by the state’s commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, said the statement of Governor el-Rufai merely seeks to encourage anarchy under the guise “of resentment of a Law by affected stakeholders”.

According to him, in these days and times, anyone who makes statements such as that allegedly made by the Governor belongs to “a class of an unenviable ilk masquerading as leaders.”

Akeredolu further stated that, “There is no wisdom in condemning/banning open grazing, prohibiting inter border movement of cattle in the North, including Kaduna, with an accompanying disapproval of a Law that gives bite to the same, in another part of the country.”

“Perhaps, it is apt to state clearly that the likes of Governor el-Rufai are already in a hysteric ‘mode’ of escalating and indeed, externalising banditry, especially as the military onslaught against criminal elements and other terror variants suffices in the North.

“For emphasis, any such comment like that of the Kaduna Governor, if indeed he made that statement, merely seeks to encourage anarchy under the guise “of resentment of a Law by affected stakeholders”.