Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Engineer Babachir David Lawal, Thursday revealed that nomads from outside Nigeria have migrated into the country and that they are the ones perpetuating most of the crises among farmers and herders across the country.
He also reiterated the decision of the present administration to establish ranches and grazing reserves across the country as solution to the incessant clashes between cattle rearers and local farmers.
The SGF who gave the revelation when he received in audience, a delegation of Tabital Pulako Njode Jam Foundation, led by the Chairman, Alhaji Abdul Bali, assured that government will do the needful to enlighten herdsmen on how to make cattle rearing more profitable by utilising the ranches and reap other social and political benefitsthat such settlements will offer.
In another development, the SGF assured the people of the North East that government agencies responsible for the rehabilitation of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the region, do not discriminate, in the provision of relief materials to the various states.
According to him, relief items were distributed with a deep sense of equity and fairness, and emphasised that the severity of the hardships of the IDPs in the affected communities and states was the major consideration in the distribution exercise.
He made this clarification in his office when he received a delegation from another group, the Lardin Gabas Elders Forum led by the Chairman Board of Trustees, Captain Paul Tahir.
He explained that rehabilitation efforts in the North-East, apart from the of foods items, tents and building materials, included the reconstruction of schools, hospitals, police stations and barracks.
He said to streamline rehabilitation activities in the region, and accelerate the return of normal life to the North-Eastern states; a Presidential Committee on North-East Initiative (PCNI) will soon be inaugurated by Mr. President.
The Forum, according to the delegation, is ready to work with the Federal Government to ensure that succour is brought to victims of the insurgency. The forum also advocates the return of Christian Religious Studies to school curriculum to teach youths about good moral upbringing, early.
