Taraba Has No Land For Cattle Colony, Says AG

Wole Ayodele

The Taraba State Government has said the state has no land to be allocated for cattle colony in the state.

Rejecting the establishment of cattle colonies being proposed by the federal government across the 36 states of the federation, the state government stated that it has already enacted a law on the prohibition of open grazing and ranches development.

The state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Yusufu Akirikwen, who stated this in an interview with journalists in Jalingo yesterday, urged the federal government to support the state to implement the law which would take effect from January 24.

He said the idea of cattle colony is not clear to majority of Nigerians and wondered where the federal government would get the land to establish the colonies.

“The truth of the matter is that the idea of cattle colony is still not very clear to most Nigerians. What is cattle colony? We have been colonised by the colonial masters and now we will be colonise by cows?

“Where would the federal government get land for cattle colonies? Would they sit there in Abuja and acquire land across the states of federation for cattle colonies? And whose land would they acquire?

“We have enacted a law for ranching here in Taraba, but we are not acquiring land for people. People are going to buy land to ranch their animals. Just like farmers buy land to do their farming business, people are going to buy land and do their ranching business,” he said

According to him, the state government has put in place implementation mechanism at various levels, but called on the federal government to support the state with enough security for the smooth implementation of the law.

Akirikwen noted that the federal government has a lot of responsibilities to cater for at the federal level and should therefore support state governors to implement the ranching system which according to him is the world’s best way of rearing cattle.