NOTWITHSTANDING the recent denial by the Edo state government, the last may not have been heard over a subtle plan by the government to cede land to Fulani herdsmen as the state branch of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the weekend accused Governor Godwin Obaseki of perfecting plans to cede community lands in the state for cattle rearing.
According to the chairman, Chief Dan Orbih who spoke in Benin while addressing thousands of defectors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party on no condition must Obaseki cede an inch of Edo land to Fulani herdsmen.
He advised President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately delist the state from the pilot scheme for cattle ranching in the country as it was obvious that the overwhelming majority of Edo people are against ceding any part of the state land for the purpose of grazing cattle.
The PDP chairman said that Buhari should replace Edo State with Kastina, his own State so that the pilot scheme can start from there.
He said: “I have seen that Governor Obaseki is not here in the interest of Edo State. All that I have seen in the past one year and some months is that there is a conscious attempt by the governor to turn the state into a grazing field for cattle rearing by the Fulani herdsmen.
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“Let me say it here that he has concluded plans long ago to use great parts of our land for cattle ranching.”
Orbih noted that going by the public outcry against the attempt to cede part of Edo land to the herdsmen, the state government hurriedly came out with an ambiguous statement.
He charged: “In one breath, he said he will not give land and in another breath, he said the government is prepared to welcome all those who want to invest in any private business because we know that ranching is a private business
“When you want to force the people and takes their land by force and turns those land into cattle ranching, it is like going from here to the North and tell the people there that you are going to use their irrigation fields for pig rearing and farms.
“We know that it is not in their culture to rear pigs. Will they not resist it? That is how we will resist the attempt to turn Edo State into a grazing field for cattle.”
Orbih warned Buhari against turning himself into a dictator through the issuing of Executive Order 6, insisting that apart from being unconstitutional, the era of Decree 4 has gone forever in the history of Nigeria.
Orbih, who expressed sadness over the executive order No. 6 which gives President Buhari the authority to forcefully seize properties belonging to Nigerians, said “President Buhari can’t arrogate the powers of the various arms of government of the legislature and judiciary to himself alone”
Receiving the decampees, Chief Orbih, said today marked the beginning of political harvest into the PDP in Edo State.
He said there were strong indications that APC leaders and members from virtually all the local government chapters in the state are ready to dump the party and increase the numerical strength of the PDP, insisting that Governor Godwin Obaseki has failed – busy signing MOU in his 2 years in government. In addition, he accused Obaseki of migrating complete strangers from Lagos Capital market to occupy sensitive positions in the state while sidelining Edo people
and then