By Dansu Peter
News Proof has finally obtained list of 16 states, which are purely the northern that have agreed to cede 5000 hectares of land each to the Federal Government for the establishment of the proposed cattle colonies aimed at pacifying the killer Fulani herdsmen in the country
This is even as no state in southern Nigeria has volunteered to provide land to the Federal Government to set up cattle colonies in order to address the incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers.
It was also learnt that the 16 states that had volunteered to provide land for the establishment of the cattle colonies are from northern Nigeria.
They include Adamawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi, Nasarawa and Plateau.
Others are Bauchi, Gombe, Borno, Jigawa, Yobe, Niger, Kogi and Kwara states.
Further findings from the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Monday in Abuja showed that while there were dissenting voices in some of the documented states that had volunteered to provide land, the 16 states agreed to provide 5,000 hectares of land each for the establishment of cattle colonies.
Last week, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, announced that the establishment of cattle colonies in the states that had volunteered land would commence this week.
When contacted, senior officials at the agriculture ministry re-echoed what Ogbeh had said that the Federal Government would not force any state to volunteer land for the initiative.
The officials, however, stated that the 16 states from northern Nigeria had been documented as locations where the initiative would start, adding that the government was canvassing support from more states, particularly from southern Nigeria.
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