About 16 state governors mostly in the North have responded to the request from the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, to provide grazing reserves termed as colonies for cattle grazing. The minister, had in a letter to all 36 governors in the country requested them to provide 5,000 hectares of land to be used for grazing.
According to Vanguard, it was gathered that the request from the minister was upon the dislocation or appropriation of many grazing reserves provided in the Northern provinces during the First Republic. Most of the grazing reserves, it was learned, were appropriated during military rule mostly by retired generals who turned to farming at the end of their time in service.
Benue State was not one of the states that gave a positive response to the request, a source said. A source in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said the governors positively responded to the letter written to them by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh. He said:
“The Minister actually wrote to the 16 governors and their response was positive, and they were the governors who had indicated interest in cattle ranches before now. “It is just semantics, and they are ready for the kick off of the cattle colony.”
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