Herdsmen: No Land For Ranching In South-East – Umahi

The Governor of Ebonyi State and Chairman of South-East Governors Forum, David Umahi, has said no land in the region would be given for ranching.

Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television on Thursday, Umahi said that given the scarcity of land in the region, the states would not participate in the ranching arrangement.

Governor Umahi, however, said the region embraced other forms of the programme.

According to the Ebonyi governor, the region accepted free movement of animals into the zone in as much as they do not come by foot because of attendant security problems.

He noted that there is no much difference between the vigilantes and community policing, adding that the region will not allow the Police Service Commission to take care of the community policing.

The governor who insisted that community policing must be in the hands of the natives equally said “the advantage of community policing is that it has the impetus of the law to arrest and detain suspects, but in our case in South East, we also have the state law which is very good in doing this.”

Chairman of South-East Governors Forum also kicked against the establishment of a regional security outfit.

He asserted that the governors in the region are comfortable with the different security architectures at various states.

The governor said the issue of insecurity is not peculiar to the region alone, but a national problem that must be tackled accordingly.

Umahi opined that one of the reasons the region cannot have a joint security network is the challenge of deployment of personnel from one state to another which they may not be familiar with.