A People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain and former governorship aspirant in Delta State, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has faulted the statement credited to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina on cattle ranching.
Adesina, while on an AIT morning programme recently, charged those against the administration’s ranching and colony programmes for herdsmen to rethink, noting that they were better off living with the ranches and colonies than dying through the persistent fatal conflicts.
Reacting to Adesina’s statement in Abuja while responding to questions from newsmen, Onuesoke stated that Adesina’s utterances signified that the Presidency has lost faith in the ability of Nigeria security agents to put the menace of herdsmen under control.
That is why, he added, Adesina was urging Nigerians to succumb to the occupation of their ancestral land by herdsmen.
The statement, according to him, will ignite more crises hence it is indirectly emboldening the herdsmen to continue encroaching on peoples’ land not minding the consequences.
He argued that the statement of “give out your ancestral land or your life” as credited to Adesina is totally unacceptable, adding that if that is the case, it means the government has lost focus of its duty to protect lives and property of the citizens.
“I am speechless. Imagine! The man just said it bluntly without respect even to hundreds of lives that have been wasted by these land grabbers.
“Before they said it was foreigners. Last week they said it was the opposition. Now they have agreed it was herdsmen who want our lands.
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“And APC is now telling us to surrender our lands or we die. I suspect Adesina must have made this statement out of error,” Onuesoke argued.
He wondered why the Federal Government is so much interested in building cattle colonies all around Nigeria instead of the Northern part of the country that has enough land!
Onuesoke suggested that cattle-rearing being a private business, the cattle owners should purchase land and ranch their cattle instead of encouraging them to encroach on people’s land which will in future escalate the present crisis.
To put an end to herdsmen menace and occupation of land for cattle colonies, the PDP strongman advised Nigerians to vote out APC administration for the sake of their children.
He stressed that if Nigerians failed to vote out Buhar, I then the present tragic happenings will be a child’s play.
and then