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Anti-open grazing law not implementable, says El-Rufai
- Seeks N130bn for 13 cattle ranches
Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai says the anti-open grazing law being enacted by some southern governors is not implementable.
He accused the southern governors of politicising the situation.
He said his state had embarked on a N10bn cattle ranch project to centralise all herders in the state.
Addressing newsmen after a meeting with officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, El-Rufai said the project would be completed in two years.
He said the Central Bank of Nigeria was supporting the state with about N7.5bn for the success of the project.
He said the northern states governors’ forum had taken a position that open grazing is not a sustainable way of livestock production, but ranching.
“But moving towards ranching cannot be done overnight. We have to have a plan; we have to have resources and we have to implement it sensibly. We’ve taken a position as northern state governors and we’re implementing that.
“In my state for instance, we’re developing a huge ranch to centralize the herders. And that is the solution a long time. But can it be done overnight? No.
“And I hope that the Fulani herdsmen will see that there are alternative ways of producing livestock instead of running up and down with cattle going to people’s farms to cause all kinds of problems. We want to solve the problem.
“What is unhelpful is politicising the situation and passing legislation that you know that you cannot implement. So, we have taken a position and we are working round the clock to implement that position.
“These herders emanate from the North and we are going to centralise them. We cannot do it overnight. We need billions of naira. This is just one ranch that is costing N10bn.
“I’ve 14 grazing reserves in Kaduna State and I’ll like to turn them into ranches. Do I have 14 times N10bn? I don’t have,” the governor said.
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Just in: I’ll resign if Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted – EFCC chairman
Just in: I’ll resign if Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted – EFCC chairman
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has vowed to follow to a logical conclusion the prosecution of former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello.
He states this on Tuesday during an interactive session with media executives in Abuja.
The EFCC chairman said he would resign if Bello escaped prosecution.
He said, “I called Yahaya Bello, as a serving governor, to come to my office to clear himself. I shouldn’t have done that.
“But he said because a certain senator has planted over 100 journalists in my office, he would not come.
“I told him that he would be allowed to use my private gate to give him a cover, but he said my men should come to his village to interrogate him.”
Olukoyede said the EFCC did not violate any law while trying to arrest the former governor from his residence.
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“Rather, we have obeyed the law. I inherited the case and I didn’t create it. Why has he not submitted himself to the law?” he asked.
“I have arraigned two past governors who have been granted bail now — Willie Obiano and Abdulfatah Ahmed.”
The EFCC chairman promised that anyone responsible for impeding Bello’s arrest from his home in Abuja would face the full force of the law.
“We would have gone after him since January but we waited for the court order,” Olukoyede said.
“As early as 7am, my men were there, over 50 of them. They mounted surveillance.
“We met over 30 armed policemen there. We would have exchanged fire and there would have been casualties.
“My men were about to move in when the governor of Kogi drove in and they later changed the narrative.”
He vowed that all those who have dipped their hands into the nation’s coffers would be investigated and prosecuted.
Olukoyede said, “If I can do Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed and Chief Olu Agunloye, my kinsman, why not Yahaya Bello?”
Just in: I’ll resign if Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted – EFCC chairman
News
Updated: FG to route 20% of palliatives through traditional, religious leaders
FG to route 20% of palliatives through traditional, religious leaders
President Bola Tinubu has directed that 20 per cent of palliative food intervention should go through religious and traditional institutions.
Vice-President Kashim Shettima made this known on Tuesday while delivering a keynote lecture at a High-Level Dialogue of Faith Leaders on Nutrition in Nigeria held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said, “The Imam of Bayero University (BUK) mentioned about the exclusion of the traditional and religious leaders in the distribution of palliatives.
”The President has approved that 20 per cent of the palliative in terms of food intervention be routed through our religious organisations and the traditional institutions.
“The Tsangaya schools, the mission schools will be specially targeted for such intervention.”
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The Vice-President said that government was working out the logistics through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to ensure smooth implementation of the intervention programme.
“This intervention will be anchored by the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Abubakar Bagudu, and he is going to anchor the programme.
“We are going to provide the overall supervision towards the implementation of the programme.
“Also 20 per cent of the funds for the School Feeding Programme is going to be channelled through the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning to the religious bodies.”
Shettima said government had commenced the engagement and working out modalities for the intervention to ensure a very transparent disbursement.
He added that the intervention would include Tsangaya and Mission schools.
News
Peter Obi was never a Labour person, LP just special vehicle – Doyin Okupe
Peter Obi was never a Labour person, LP just special vehicle – Doyin Okupe
Former director-general of the Labour Party presidential campaign, Doyin Okupe has said the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, never believed in the ideologies of the party.
Okupe stated this while answering questions in an interview on Arise Television’s flagship programme, The Morning Show.
The Labour Part, according to Okupe was just a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the presidential election.
Okupe who resigned his membership of the Labour Party in January, on the grounds of ideological differences said his membership of the party ended the moment Obi lost the election.
“The LP for us — for Peter Obi and I — and those in the leadership of the movement… the party was a special purpose vehicle (SPV).
“I have never been a labour person, I have never operated on the left before but we needed a platform and this was the only platform readily available to us.
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“We thought that if we won the election… there are no fast and hard rules about ideologies. You can always find a shade between the left and the right. You can always move to the centre.
“We were hoping and praying that if we won we would find a way to come to some consensus with the labour.
“Peter Obi is not a labour person. He is not a leftist person, he is a trader, he is a businessman just like me. I am a liberal democrat, I believe in liberal democracy, I believe in free enterprise.
“I am not a social worker. As far as I’m concerned, my membership of labour expired the moment we lost that election.”
The former presidential aide said it was “unreasonable” for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to present a northerner as its candidate in the buildup to the 2023 election.
Peter Obi was never a Labour person, LP just special vehicle – Doyin Okupe
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