Ekiti in diaspora along with two indigenous groups, – the Ekitiparapo Lagos and Ekitipanupo Forum, have expressed shock over the adoption of the Federal Government’s Livestock Transformation Programme (LTP) by Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State.
In a statement jointly issued by the President of Ekitiparapo Lagos, Dare Ojo; and the leader of Ekitipanupo Roundtable Initiative, Gabriel Akinyemi, the groups said they were concerned over the adoption of the programme by the state government that seeks to donate land to herdsmen for grazing of animals.
Their statement reads: “We note that the Federal Government two years ago had introduced RUGA, which was later renamed the Livestock Transformation Programme with the same objectives of allocating land to herdsmen for the purpose of grazing and settlement.
“As a result of increasing spate of insecurity by herdsmen in the state, it is worrisome that the state government could contemplate warehousing herdsmen in the state and further increase the spate of killings and insecurity.”
Adding its voice, the Ekiti in Diaspora asserted that the state boasted many abandoned farm settlements specially developed during the old Western Region, and that such could be deployed through public-private partnership for the development of livestock and employment creation for Ekiti youths, rather than allocating scarce land to Fulani herdsmen under the guise of livestock transformation.