PDP Govs Rejecting Efforts To End Herders/Farmers Crises — Presidency

The Presidency says the People’s Democratic Party Governors’ Forum has refused to support the Federal Government’s earnest desire to reinstate the local government as the third tier and finding a lasting solution to farmer-herder conflicts costing the nation lives and livestock.A presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, in a statement Wednesday, was reacting to an earlier communique issued on Monday by the PDP governors after their meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom.

Shehu said: “This initiative brings rights and support for generations of all ages to bring solutions to challenges that different communities of our country have faced, but the PDP governors reject it.”He said with this, the PDP governors denied all Nigerians their constitutional right to live and work in any state of the federation, preferring to appeal to ethnic division and hatred rather than support the first practical solution offered since independence.

“Similarly, the governors appeal to each other for more involvement of States in mining and geophysical activities within their States.

”The question must be asked: ‘Why has this taken you so long?’ Such opportunities and States’ powers have been fully available since independence – yet only now the PDP realises it?”

Shehu said the PDP governors proposed no solutions to nation’s challenges in the face of COVID and global economic downturn.

He also condemned their stance on the suspension of the activities of Twitter in Nigeria, saying they had been using the Twitter platform to spread fake news and invented stories.

”Their statement is evidence, if any were needed, as to why the President and the APC ended the PDP’s one-party rule in 2015, were re-elected by an increased margin in 2019, and why their winning trend is set to continue far into the future,” he added.