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DG PGF decries Presidency’s position on Ondo herdsmen ban

The Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Lukman, has condemned the position of the Presidency on the ban of Herdsmen by the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu. According to him, governments should compliment reforms introduced by other arms of levels, rather than being divisive over them.

The DG, in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, also said it was not within the purview of the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media and Publicity) Mallam Garba Shehu to counter the reform decision of the governor of Ondo State on grazing in the state.

He stated that if reforms would be positive, there should be no divisive voices on it. On his statement titled: “Caution on Divisive Campaigns and National Security Challenges,” Lukman called on All Progressives Congress(APC) as party to look at its manifesto to see what it believes in. According to him, the APC, before it came to power believed that things were not going well and needed to be changed.

He said: “The section of our manifesto – APC – An Honest Contract with Nigeria, outlined our challenge as a nation bordering on whether “we have the will and courage to unite to radically reform, modernise and move our nation forward – not looking backward to the failed policies and practices of the past. It is no longer a question of choice but of will and courage!” With all the different manifestations of many of the problems facing our dear country, Nigeria, requiring demonstration of both the will and courage by our leaders, which as our manifesto rightly emphasised, it is not ‘a question of choice’, our leaders at all levels and across all the divide, are responding and taking initiatives in different ways.

Unfortunately, the more initiatives are taken, the more some Nigerians wrongly interpret those initiatives in divisive vocabularies.” Condemning the divisive rhetoric on Governor Akeredolu’s ban on herdsmen, he said:”This is clearly what is at play since the statement issued by His Excellency, Rotimi Akeredolu on Monday, January 18, 2021 asking herdsmen to vacate Forest Reserves in Ondo State within seven days as well as banning night-grazing with immediate effect.

The objective of the Ondo State government was well articulated, which is to ensure that the forest reserves in Ondo State are disallowed from being used as hideouts for kidnappers, bandits and other criminals.

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