Governor of Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, has berated his counterpart in Kaduna State, Northwest region, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, over his comment that the anti-open grazing laws being championed by Governors of Southern Nigeria is unrealistic, saying it is “a hysteric ploy to externalise banditry.”
Akeredolu said in a statement issued by his State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Donald Ojogo, lamented that such a statement should not have come from a leader, regretting that Governor El-Rufai is promoting “anarchy under the guise of resentment of a law by affected stakeholders.”
In the statement titled, ‘Anti-open grazing: El-Rufai’s attack on Southern Governors devious, a hysteric ploy to externalise banditry’, Akeredolu reiterated that the anti-open grazing law, especially in Ondo State, had come to stay, saying, “It shall be zealously guarded and conscionably deployed to protect all residents of Ondo State, notwithstanding their ethnic and religious biases.”
The statement read, “From all indications, Governor Nasir El-Rufai, if he was properly quoted and his views not misrepresented, is struggling hard to export banditry to the South under an expressed opinion that is laced with mischief.
“Perhaps, it is apt to state clearly that the likes of Governor El-Rufai are already in a hysteric ‘mode’ of escalating and indeed, externalising banditry, especially as the military onslaught against criminal elements and other terror variants suffices in the North.
“For emphasis, any such comment like that of the Kaduna Governor, if indeed he made that statement, merely seeks to encourage anarchy under the guise of resentment of a law by affected stakeholders.”
