Defiant Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has continued with his defence of herdsmen. The latest salvo he fired is that they could inhabit the Ondo forest without the approval of the state’s governor, Rotimi Akeredolu.
Akeredolu had issued a seven days quit notice to the herdsmen living in the Ondo State Forest Reserve. But Mohemmed said the quit notice was unlawful.
Mohammed had earlier defended the herdsmen for bearing AK47, a kind of weapon that is forbidden for private citizens to possess.
His latest defence of the herdsmen is that as citizens, they don’t need the permission of his Ondo State counterpart, Rotimi Akeredolu, to live in the forests in the South-West state.
The Bauchi State governor stated this on Friday on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme monitored.
“Land is in the hands of the state and federal governments in trust but Nigerians don’t need the permission of governors or the federal government to settle everywhere. You don’t need the permission of the governor of Bauchi or the governor of Ondo to be in the forests of Ondo if you choose to live in the forests because under Section 41 of the constitution, you are free to settle anywhere,” Mohammed said.