The Senator representing Southern
Kaduna senatorial zone, Danjuma La’ah, has emphasized that Southern Kaduna does
not welcome any Cattle Colony in whatever guise.
A press statement he personally
issued on the proposed cattle colonies in the country, Senator La’ah observed
that, “Kaduna South Senatorial Zone, and by extension, the entire Southern
Kaduna, rejects any attempt to seize more of its lands for the exclusive
settlement of herdsmen and their cattle using state power.
“Already, there is an existing
Cattle Grazing Reserve in Laduga from lands taking away from indigenes of
Zangon Kataf and Kachia Local Government Areas dating back decades ago.
“That massive land officially
gazetted at 32,000 hectare, (32,000 football fields), but which the present
Kaduna State government has expanded to 74,000 hectares was taken from my
constituents without compensation till date, as records have it.
“It therefore, means that
Southern Kaduna has already given much, much more over the needed 5000 hectares
by 15 times or at least 6 times the needed space for a Grazing Colony – should
the size of Laduga Grazing Reserve be put at 72,000 or at 32,000 hectares.
“The population of Southern
Kaduna is fast increasing with equal demands new farmlands, animal rearing and
other land uses for now and in the future.
“Ask us for lands to site
Universities, government institutions etc. We are willing to give out our lands
in partnership with industrialists, mechanised farming, estate developments and
all positive social and economic endeavours that are of mutual benefits to
everyone.
“We have co-habited for very long
with Fulani herdsmen without the kind of strange and evil relation that their
presence has suddenly turned into in many communities of Southern Kaduna.
Herdsmen, their cattle and our people have fared even better in the past when
we peacefully lived together in affected communities.
“It is still possible to normalise
that relationships if government is sincere and serious about it, because we
believe that majority of our local herdsmen are law abiding and crave for peace
and development.
“I am sure that had our parents
not been living in peace and with the Fulani in their time, a lot of resistance
would have been put against the Laduga Grazing Reserve becoming a reality even
at that time that they had no political power, were not so literate and exposed
to forecast the doom that their future generations would later encounter by the
creation of that Grazing Reserve.
“It would now look as if the
terror unleashed on Southern Kaduna and the Middle Belt is to cower them into
submitting their prime lands for new colonies of herdsmen.
“No land in Southern Kaduna is
free again for the exclusive economic benefit of a group of people who have
paid us for humanely accommodating them with mass murder and destruction in
scores of our settlements since 2011.
“Herdsmen are rich and can afford
to negotiate and buy lands from willing farmers to ranch their animals as is
the practice in modern times, since pastoralism is regarded as backward and
prone to conflicts.
“While, I still very much would
encourage cohabiting in a peaceful and free atmosphere with every ethnic group
residing in Southern Kaduna, I wish to advise both Kaduna State and the Federal
Government not sow permanent seeds of problems that will far outlived their
temporary stay in office – such as creating a new permanent abode for herders
under the tense and suspicious condition that farmers have for herdsmen today.
“The solution to the strange
violence developed by armed herdsmen against farming communities is not
confiscation of farmers’ lands and settling those who are marauding them.
“The solution is to bring to
justice those carrying out these heinous crimes and provide security to the
defenceless – after all some of them have been identified and paid by Kaduna
State government. When this is done, sincere dialogue to ending the terror may
start between all stakeholders in the crisis.”
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