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The plan of by the Federal Government to set up cattle ranches in Oyo State is a ploy to invade and distort the cultural values of the Yoruba nation. The plan which is part of the 179 billion 10 year-long project , according to the Federal Government will see cattle ranches established in 10 states including Oyo, the heart of Yorubaland.bn The statement was made available to Irohinoodua on Wednesday.
The Apapo Oodua Koya, (AOKOYA) a Pan Yoruba group established in 2001, in a statement on Thursday said the proposal shows the desperation of the Federal Government to impose the will of the Fulani herdsmen on the Yoruba people. AOKOYA calls for a coordinated peaceful resistance to the proposal by all the people and states concerned.
“The agenda is very clear. The Federal Government has chosen Oyo State which is in the heart of Yorubaland for the proposed cattle ranch. We want to assure the FG that this project will not work. It is a defiant behavior on the part of a government that speaks and represents only its ethnic Fulani group”, the statement was signed by AOKOYA’s Home Affairs Secretary, Mr Abiola Okiki.
He said “This is the first time the federal government of a plural country will be investing N179 billion in a business whose sole aim is to impose an hegemony on the people.. Cattle herding is a private business. Why did the Federal Government decide to put in public resources mainly sourced from oil and Southern resources? What is the business of the FG in protecting a business that has spit so much human blood in the land? This is nothing but conquest by other means”, he said.
AOKOYA said the FG plan is coming in the face of consistent public resistance to the ill-motivated plans. The group said it is curious that the states selected for the cattle ranching are all indigenous territories where Fulani people have no single land. Even though Bornu and Kano are 28 times the size of Lagos, the FG did not include Bornu in the proposed sites.
The states selected are Adamawa, Benue, Ebonyi, Edo, Kaduna, Nasasrawa, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba and Zamfara States.
“It is clear that the FG is implementing pre-conceived Fulani agenda. None of the selected state is cattle producing. The FG had cautiously picked indigenous states with the hope of populating those states with Fulani herdsmen who will come with their arms. They are rather preparing for declaration of war on indigenous people. If they are honest, the ranching should have been restricted to States with preponderance of Fulani herdsmen and not states where they will have to invade and populate with serious future consequences.
AOKOYA stated further “We see this as a grand design for war on indigenous people. There is no other substitute to qualify the intention of the Fulani controlled Federal Government. What we are seeing is conquest by all means possible including violence. It is unfortunate that the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Audu Ogbe continues to present himself as a slave-driver recruited to implement policies aimed at keeping his own people in perpetual slavery.
Okiki said: “At his old age, Ogbe will realize that he has written his name in the darkest part of human history which curse will be on him and his generations.”
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