Governor meets with Fulani herdsmen over grazing bill

The Governor said “I have nothing against you or any other ethnic group. Nobody should bring politics into this matter. If a Yoruba person destroys your property I will defend you too. It is people destroying other people’s farms that are causing this problem.

“We have given lands to people to farm and they have paid, some for many years to use the lands and when somebody now comes and destroys their means of livelihood and make them suffer losses, we won’t allow that. If anybody says Fayose is after Hausa or Fulani people, that person has no sense. During my first term, I appointed a man from Malunfashi as a Special Adviser. This term too, I appointed Musa Kanga into the Pilgrims Welfare Board.

“In Oke Ako-Ekiti last May, two persons were killed, people’s wives raped by those hiding under the guise of rearing cattle. I have 83 cows too and I have told the person taking care of them that if he goes against the law and any of them is seized, he will be responsible for that.”

Speaking to newsmen after the meeting, the Ekiti State Chairman of MACBAN, Alhaji Muhammad Nasamu, thanked The Ekiti Governor for being frank and open.

The group had earlier asked Fayose to tender an unreserved apologyand compensate its members whose cows were killed.

On August 29, 2016, Governor Fayose signed the Ekiti Open Grazing Prohibition Bill into law, banning herdsmen from carrying arms and indiscriminately moving cattle from one location to the other.