Ekiti gives farmers, herders two more weeks to register or quit forest

 

The Ekiti State Government has given farmers and herders another two-week window to register with it or quit the state.

The two-week grace begins tomorrow, Monday March 22.

The state conducted a two-week registration of farmers and herders last month but not all the people involved seized the opportunity.

Agriculture and Food Security Commissioner, Olabode Adetoyi, said in a statement in Ado-Ekiti yesterday that the exercise was expedient to ensure that all farmers and herders could be accounted for.

The registration, according to him, is also aimed at ensuring peace between the two groups and bringing incessant clashes between them to an end and in consonance with the National Livestock Transformation Programme of the Federal Government.

Dr. Adetoyi observed that clashes between farmers and herders posed dangers to human and food security, hence the need to take proactive measures to curb the menace.

Special Adviser to Gov. Kayode Fayemi on Security Matters and Chairman, herders-farmers Peace Committee, retired Brig.-Gen. Ebenezer Ogundana, warned in the statement that whoever failed to register would be treated as a criminal.

Such persons, he said, would be compelled to leave the state. Director-General, Office of Transformation and Service Delivery, Prof. Mobolaji Aluko, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that identity cards would be issued to registered farmers and herders free of charge.