Southern Governors Forum has attacked Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai over the verbal attack on the forum.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has described the verbal attack on the forum by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, Northwest Nigeria as “devious and a hysteric ploy to externalise banditry.”
El-Rufai while criticising the Anti Open-grazing Bill passed by Southern states’ assemblies said that Southern governors were making laws that are not implementable.
Akeredolu, in a statement through his Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, said: “From all indications, Governor 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 a leader.
“There is no wisdom in condemning or banning open grazing, prohibiting the inter-border movement of cattle in the North, including Kaduna, with 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 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 other 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 conscionable [sic] 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.”
