We Need Agric University, Not Cattle Ranch, Community Leader Tells Enugu Govt

A community leader in Nimbo Community, Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, Comrade Marcel Enechi, on Friday pleaded with the Enugu State government to fulfill its promise of building a university of agriculture in the area.

Enechi said the Peoples Democratic Party had in the build-up to the 2023 governorship election campaigned to build a university in the local government because of its comparative advantage in the agro-sector.

Enechi was reacting to the planned establishment of a cattle ranch at Nimbo by the state government. THE WHISTLER reports that Fulani herdsmen, in 2015, attacked Nimbo community, killing about fifty persons and wounding many others.

Enechi said, “We don’t need a ranch in any part of Uzo-Uwani LGA, including Nimbo. The state government has something in mind. We were promised a university of agriculture to harness our agricultural potentials. Fulani people massacred our people in 2015. How many of the victims have been compensated? We don’t want a repeat of such.”

Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to the governor of Enugu State on political matter, Mr Frank Anioma, said the planned ranch was to curtail the menace of Fulani herdsmen in the state.

According to him, “We don’t support open grazing in Enugu State. The ranch is a programme that is yet to come into full implementation. It will be created and people will run the place. It will have abattoirs and veterinary services. It will make movement of cattle controlled.

“The people were not properly enlightened on the ranching. Probably, the approach adopted by the federal government in Benue State under the past administration created the fear. But it is not what Enugu government wants to do. Ours is to establish a modern reaching system.”

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has cautioned all the governors of Igbo states against setting up Fulani Ruga settlements in their domains.

HURIWA claimed that such would lead to the infiltration of war mongers and terrorists from Mauritania, Mali, Niger and central African Republic to South East.

The rights group, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, stated that, “HURIWA wants to remind the Enugu State governor about the revelation made by the erstwhile bellicose Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nassir El-Rufa’i, that he had to travel to a location outside of Nigeria in the West African region to pay off armed Fulani terrorists who were engaged to kill off Southern Kaduna Christians.

“Even after the then Kaduna State governor bribed the killer migrant Fulani terrorists to stop killing Christians of Southern Kaduna origin, these killer herders refused to listen to El-Rufa’i and continued with their blood cuddling violent attacks in Southern Kaduna. So, is this what the Enugu State governor is planning to introduce in Enugu State which is obviously the capital of Igboland?”