The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum has rejected the Federal Government’s proposed pilot ranching scheme in parts of the Middle Belt, describing it as an attempt to take over ancestral lands under the guise of livestock development.
The forum, in a statement issued on Wednesday and signed by its Chairman, Oba Oladipo Olaitan; President of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu; President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, John Azuta-Mbata; and National Chairman of PANDEF, Amb Godknows Igali, also urged communities and governments in the Southern states to prepare to resist the policy.
The SMBLF said it was particularly concerned that the proposed pilot areas included Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna, Taraba and the Federal Capital Territory.
The group said, “The SMBLF is alarmed by the audacious attempt by the Federal Government to take over lands belonging to ethnic communities in the Middle Belt under a spurious ‘pilot scheme’ being introduced in the name of a New National Livestock Policy.”
The development comes barely days after the Middle Belt Forum rejected the Federal Government’s renewed ranching policy, describing the proposed allocation of land in the region for livestock production as a potential land-grabbing scheme.
