Grazing reserves: Yoruba Nation agitators, others threaten ‘mass revolt’

Yoruba Nation agitators and other self-determination proponents have told Southern Governors that there will be a “never-seen-before mass revolt” in states that agreed to accommodate grazing reserves.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had on August 19 approved a controversial review of 368 grazing reserves across 25 states in the country.

Agitators, under the aegis of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination, released a statement on Friday calling on the state governors to “respect the wishes of their people on the issue of the grazing reserve being planned by the central government for Fulani Herdsmen”

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NINAS, headed by Prof Banji Akintoye as the Chairman and Tony Nnadi as Secretary-General, is the coordinating platform for the umbrella bodies of self-determination groups in the South and Middle Belt of Nigeria with Ilana Omo Oodua representing the South West, Lower Niger Congress representing the South-South and South-East and Middle Belt Renaissance Movement representing the Middle Belt Region.

In the statement, titled, “Governors in the Southern Region that welcome FG’s Grazing Reserves should prepare for a never-seen-before mass action”, NINAS said “under the Land Use Act of 1978, all lands in Nigeria vest in State Governors who hold same in Trust for the People. With the possible exception of the Federal Capital Territory, the Federal Government of Nigeria does not own any land upon which it can establish grazing routes.”

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The statement partly read, “For the avoidance of doubt, under the Land Use Act of 1978, all lands in Nigeria vest in State Governors who hold same in Trust for the People. With the possible exception of the Federal Capital Territory, the Federal Government of Nigeria does not own any land upon which it can establish grazing routes.

“It follows that any Governor in the Alliance Territories who cedes any land to the Federal Government in the name of Grazing Route will be doing so in breach of the Trust in which such lands are held and worse still, in defiance of the overwhelming Will of the People.

“We say with all sense of modesty and responsibility that the grazing route is an attempt towards grabbing our ancestral land through the back door which must be rejected by all means necessary.

“This is not a threat, but a piece of advice – any Governor who cedes our land to the central government for Fulani Herdsmen’s grazing reserve should be ready to face the wrath of the people.

“Such a Governor should be ready to answer to their people on why the rights of the people are being trampled upon and their land allowed to be invaded by a group that has demonstrated that all they are there to do is kill and take over their ancestral lands.

“Such a governor should know that while the NINAS movement for self-determination is peaceful, this continued pandering to killers, most of whom are being brought in from outside of Nigeria, ceding an inch of their ancestral lands will result in such mass peaceful action that may rumble his state to the foundation.”