Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has indicted the Federal Government for not condemning the threat issued by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria against the state.
MACBAN, the umbrella body of herdsmen in Nigeria, had on Saturday threatened to wage war against the state for enacting grazing law restricting movement of cattle in the state.
MACBAN also alleged that four cattle belonging to its member were killed by the newly inaugurated Ekiti Grazing Enforcement Marshal.
But Fayose at a press briefing in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday said five cattle that were arrested last week were being kept in the government ranch and their owners could take them back as soon as the necessary fines were paid.
The governor, who cautioned that the federal government’s silence must have emboldened the herdsmen, warned that his government would not sit back and watch while the lives of his people were in danger.
He urged his people to be prepared to defend their land against the herdsmen.
He said, “The silence of the federal government has no doubt further confirmed the insinuation that there is plot to give tacit support to the herdsmen to invade some border towns and villages in Ekiti State and cause chaos in the State so as to justify the evil agenda of declaration of a state of emergency on the State.