The Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, spared no punches in tackling the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, for saying that the anti-open grazing law passed by the Southern governors was not implementable.
Akeredolu, who also doubles as the chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, told El-Rufai in unequivocal terms that the law shall be jealously implemented to the letter.
Akeredolu in a statement signed by his Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, described El-Rufai’s attack on him and other Southern Governors as devious and a hysteric ploy to externalise banditry.
The said: “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.
“In these days and times, anyone who makes statements such as that allegedly made by the Governor belongs to a class of an unenviable ilk masquerading as leaders.
“There is no wisdom in condemning/banning open grazing, prohibiting inter border movement of cattle in the North, including Kaduna, with an accompanying disapproval of a Law that gives bite to same, in another part of the country.
“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’.
“In order words, it is a cleverly crafted path towards replicating in the South, the most despicable situation in the North that Nigerians of goodwill daily pray to overcome. It’s a ploy beyond the ordinary.
“It must, however, be noted that the Anti-Grazing Law, especially in Ondo State, has come to stay. It shall be zealously guarded and conscionably deployed to protect all residents of Ondo State, notwithstanding their ethnic and religious biases. Those who have nothing evil to perpetrate have nothing to fear as regards the Law.”