Gov Lalong blames predecessor over cattle ranch protest

Governor Solomon Lalong of Plateau State has accused his predecessor, Senator Jonah Jang, of allegedly masterminding the recent protest in the state over the introduction of cattle ranches as a way of ending the incessant farmers’ and herdsmen’s clashes.

Lalong, who spoke with State House correspondents on Friday shortly after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, stated that what the protesters kicked against was grazing reserve while the state government was talking about ranches.

He, however, noted that the protest was restricted to a few ethnic groups, adding that his government had done a lot of consultations and that all stakeholders including traditional rulers, religious leaders and youth organisations accepted that the state should adopt ranching.

According to him, “The man who introduced and is causing that confusion is Jonah Jang who incidentally was the one who introduced grazing reserves on the Plateau with a gazette in 2009. That is the gazette I am going to publish.

“If you said if we have to bring peace in Plateau State, you have to introduce grazing reserves and grazing routes, why is he turning round again and instigating people against what is being done?

“He is trying to give an impression that it is the President that is introducing it; is not the President, it is an option to every state to key into the concept of grazing ranch.

“Its ranches, not grazing reserve so I have set up a 14-man committee and they have addressed traditional rulers who adopted it, they have addressed the religious leaders who also adopted it, youth organisations also adopted it.

“So whatever you see in my state now is just pocket of crisis or protest and not part of what the state has done.

“We have concluded our consultations and the state accepted that we should proceed with ranches which is very economical and that would also help in curbing the insecurity that we have in our state.”

The Governor, while explaining that the ranches would be funded by both the Federal and state governments, regretted that some people had erroneously taken the scheme to be a project of the All Progressives Congress, APC, that must be foiled by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP