Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Chief Olu Falae has said he would not be intimidated over his sad experiences in the hands of rampaging herdsmen and expressed disappointment over the silence of President Muhammadu Buhari on the matter, following the recent attack on his farm in Ondo State.
This came as the Ondo State Government, yesterday vowed to regulate the activities of herdsmen in the state. But when contacted, the Presidency kept mum on the attack as Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina said: “It is not a Presidency affair.”
The Ondo Police Command, however, assured that investigations are under way to nab the arsonist that perpetuated the act. On its part, the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, condemned the attack vowing to protect Yoruba interests across the country. Falae expresses disappointment Falae spoke with newsmen after state government officials and the state Police Commissioner, Mr Adeyanju visited his farm, which was set ablaze in Ilado, Akure North area of the state. He, however, vowed to resist intimidation and harassment by the herdsmen to chase him out of his farm of 32 years.
He said: “My farm has been destroyed five times within three years and it is a deliberate means to probably kill me, run me out of business and away from the farmland which is not possible.” The former Finance Minister equally insisted that “there shall not be cattle colonies in any part of Yorubaland. It’s a fraud.” Asked if he was not worried by the silence of the President on the activities of the herdsmen, he said “it is only President Buhari who can answer the question why he is silent over these Fulani herdsmen atrocities.”
He said: “I have expected him for over two years to take an initiative and make a national broadcast to Nigerians and assure us that he would handle the matter by announcing effective measures that could control the rapacity of the herdsmen. “He has failed to assure Nigerians that we and the herdsmen can live together in peace without the other side damaging the other. I am disappointed that I have not heard this from him.
“If I were the President, I would have taken the initiative because this is not a problem that cannot be solved. Many nations have gone through this, this mode of cattle rearing is universal but in the last hundred years, most nations have solved the problem by adopting ranching.
“Ranching is cattle farming and a legitimate and profitable business run by private business men. But they are trying to take my crops to feed their cattle to subsidise their own business because they are forcing me, by invading my farm in the night, to supply free food to their cattle and when they sell the cattle they don’t give me part of the money.”
