President Buhari’s FG apologizes to victims of herdsmen attacks, trains agro rangers to protect farms

www.odogwublog.com reports that the President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government, though belatedly has finally apologized to victims of herdsmen attacks in different parts of the country.

Buhari said that there is no justification for their barbaric activities which have brought untold hardship to a lot of innocent Nigerians.

Speaking through the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe at a town hall meeting organized by the federal government in Umuahia, Abia State, Buhari also denied that the rampaging herdsmen were being sponsored or protected by the federal government.

He was responding to questions by participants at the forum who repeatedly expressed annoyance over the docility of the federal government over the atrocities of Fulani herdsmen in the country, accusing it of using the herdsmen to achieve a hidden agenda.
The town hall meeting had in attendance the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed; his Trade and Investment counterpart, Okechukwu Enelama; Minister for Labour, Senator Chris Ngige; and the Minister of Mines and Steel, Abubakar Bawa Bwary.
Chief Ogbe expressed concern over the threat posed by herdsmen to agrarian communities in the country, a situation he said portends a grave danger to the food security of the country.
He said federal government had already set up a committee headed by Gen. Nze to monitor the movement of herdsmen to stop them from wrecking further havoc to their host communities especially farmers.
He also said that the ‘’federal government is training 3000 agro rangers’’ to help protect farms against destruction by cows.
Ogbe said it was wrong for herdsmen to bear arms in Nigeria when their counterparts elsewhere do not carry any arms.
‘’Herdsmen should not be allowed to carry AK 47 in Nigeria because in other countries they bear no arms. The federal government is training 3000 agro rangers to help secure our farms.
‘’ We need rice to feed the people not cows. We won’t allow herdsmen to attack farmers again. I am a farmer, and I have been a victim, and I know how it pains’’, he said.
The Minister who said that diversification of the economy remained the only viable option out of the current economic recession in the country, hinted that the federal government had concluded plans to establish modern  cocoa plantations in Abia, Ondo, and Cross River States.
He said 20 million tones of cocoa is targeted from the plantations per annum, adding that improved cocoa seedlings that yield inn two years would be planted in the plantations.
The Minister noted with delight tghat Nigeria had been recognised as the seventh highest producer of rice in the world, and called on Nigerians to embrace agriculture instead of looking for white collar.
He said the federal government was set to set up 100 rice mills across the country to help in processing local rice.
Similarly, Ogbe said 200 palm oil mills would be also set up across oil producing zones in the next two years to help in oil palm procession.
The Minister who said there was high demand for Nigeria agric products in the global market made strong case for the  agric revolution in the country as obtained before the advent of crude oil.


Photo: L-R Chief Audu Ogbe, Minster of Agriculture; Dr. Chris Ngige, Minster of Labour and Employment; Chief Okey Enelamah, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment; Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture (leader) Abia state Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, His deputy, Sir Ude Okochukwu and Alhaji Bawa Buhari, Ministetr of state for Solid Minerals Dev. during their courtesy visit on the Governor as part of the Town Hall Meeting in Umuahia…..
President Buhari’s FG apologizes to victims of herdsmen attacks, trains agro rangers to protect farms President Buhari’s FG apologizes to victims of herdsmen attacks, trains agro rangers to protect farms Reviewed by Unknown on Monday, February 27, 2017 Rating: 5

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