February 5, 2021
Geraldine Onyenweaku
The last has certainly not been heard of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu’s seven day ultimatum to herders to vacate Ondo state forest reserves.
The governor made good his threat when he recently deployed the Ondo state security network agency, Amotekun, to flush out no fewer than 37 herdsmen and over 5, 000 cows illegally occupying the Ondo State forest reserves .
The State Commander of Amotekun, Chief Adetunji Adeleye said this was done in an efforts to combat criminalities in the state.
Adeleye also said his men were still in the forest to flush out the remaining erring herders.
According to him, some of the herdsmen who could not cope with the terms and conditions of the state government had met with the corps and opted to move out of the state peacefully.
He said that the suspects were fished out from Ala, Oda and Ofosu forests.
Earlier, Akeredolu’s speech to evict illegal herders from the state’s forest reserves after seven days attracted mixed reactions from the two sides of the aisle; the presidency, clearly on the side of the cattle breeders and the residents of Ondo state.
While the speech drew applause from a section of Ondo residents, who have been traumatised by herdsmen in recent months, It was ridiculed by the cattle breeders association and the presidency, who in a swift response, differed with the governor.
The Secretary General of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria,(MACBAN), Usman Ngelzerma fired the first salvo. Ngelzerma said in the two hour meeting with Governor Akeredolu that they never discussed ultimatum to quit the reserve, but on how to stop the night grazing
Also, Mallam Shehu Garba, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, in an official statement, described Akeredolu’s orders as ‘unilateral’ and ‘unconstitutional’.
Similarly, in Oyo State , a self-styled activist, Sunday Igboho, issued a seven-day ultimatum for herders to quit Ibarapa lands on account of kidnapping and other criminal activities.