Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has asked Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, to apologise to Nigerians for demanding the suspension of anti-grazing law, saying there should be caution by those in government as regards farmers-herders crisis.

*Ortom

Speaking at an event yesterday, to showcase the national livestock transformation plan by the office of the Vice President, Governor Ortom said: “In a time like this, we should be sensitive to what is going on.

“I wonder if the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, has had time to read the newspapers; he would have felt Nigerians’ pulse  for calling for the suspension of a legitimate law.

“It is not good enough; it is casting the government in a bad light and the minister of the Federal Republic should represent Nigerians’ interests.

“He should not be the mouthpiece of Miyetti Allah in a conflict involving Nigerians, especially when it is not your technical supervision.

“He should have allowed the Minister of Agric (Audu Ogbeh) who has the responsibility of managing this, to say or making such inflammatory statements, because a lot of people read different meanings to it; coming from a Security Council meeting and making such statements.

“Some people took it as the opinion of the security council. When he clarified it, that solved some problems— he needs to apologise to Nigerians,” noting that the anti-grazing law was put in place out of desperation.

On his part, Audu Ogbeh said: “Marching cattle around is no longer viable. We have to resort to ranching and ranching in clusters is difficult.”

Also speaking, Andrew Kwasari, a senior technical adviser to Ogbeh, said Federal Government has secured 94 ranches in 10 states as part of measures to curb the crisis.

Kwasari said N70 billion would be needed to fund the grazing reserves in three years, which would have 170,000 cows in the pilot phase of the project.