Rehabilitate Existing Ranches, Benue APC Leaders Tell Ortom

SOME leaders of the All Progressives Congress under the aegis of Ihyarev APC leaders in Benue State, on Tuesday, appealed to Governor Samuel Ortom to revive the existing ranches in the state and lease them out to interested citizens.

Leaders of the group, who met in Makurdi, applauded the open grazing prohibition law of the administration but advised the governor to rehabilitate ranches at Ikyogen in Kwande, Aondona in the Raav Gwer West Local Government and Igumale in Ado.

This was contained in a statement signed by a former Speaker of the State Assembly in the aborted third republic, Stephen Tsav and five others.

Members of the group noted that the committee had provided a roadmap that would engender peace in the state.

They also advised that the governor should hold a meeting with his Nasarawa State counterpart, Abdulahi Sule to work out a security arrangement that would ensure the protection of lives and property of citizens and residents of their shared borders.

The statement read in part, “We do acknowledge that there had been sporadic incidences of conflicts between the Fulani herders and our farming communities predating our generation and the present administration of Governor Ortom which were seasonal and immediately settled through dialogue and compensation.”