Three senior lawyers and groups, including Afenifere and the Yoruba Council of Elders, on Wednesday, criticised the Presidency over its stand on the Ondo State Government’s ultimatum to herdsmen in the state’s forest reserves.
But the Northern Elders’ Forum directed the Fulani herdsmen to disregard the notice to quit forest reserves in the state.
Also on Wednesday, the Ondo State Government said it did not tell herdsmen to leave the state or its forests, but forest reserves, which had become hideouts of kidnappers.
Recall that the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, had on Monday ordered herdsmen to leave the state’s forest reserves within seven days.
The Presidency, in a statement by the President’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, faulted the governor, saying he should not act outside his constitutional powers.
In a telephone interview with Punch, the Secretary General of the YCE, Dr Kunle Olajide, described as unconstitutional, the reaction of the Presidency.
Olajide said, “Any Nigerian is free to live in any part of the country in as much as he lives in peace with the people without engaging in violence or constituting a threat to the survival and wellbeing of others. But how do you explain a situation where you get to a place and engage in crime and criminality, killing and maiming of innocent people and plundering their farmlands and the likes?
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