The Plateau Youth G-17 Peace and Progressive Forum has described the proposed Federal Government Ruga Settlement Policy as a way for grabbing lands from landowners to the Herdsmen.

The group said the policy is tilted towards favoring an ethnic group over others.

“As Plateau Youths, we firmly caution the government and the people of Plateau State concerning this move by the Federal Government as we strongly believe this plan is tilted towards favoring a particular ethnic group above others in a country which belongs to all of us. ” the group said.

“We shall not relent in our patriotic duty of holding government accountable and therefore, demand that the Plateau State government comes out openly in rejecting the foisting of this unpopular scheme on the people. ” the group went further to say.

These statements were contained in a text of the Press Conference held today by the group and made available to Viewpoint Nigeria. The text reads:

PLATEAU YOUTH G17 PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE ESTABLISHEMENT OF THE RUGA FULANI HERDSMEN SETTLEMENT HELD ON THE 27TH OF JUNE 20019

Gentlemen of the Press
We address you today on a critical issue already in the public domain concerning the Federal Government’s move towards the establishment of “RUGA Fulani Settlements for Herdsmen” in some states of the Federation – Plateau State inclusive.
As Plateau Youths, we firmly caution the government and the people of Plateau State concerning this move by the Federal Government as we strongly believe this plan is tilted towards favoring a particular ethnic group above others in a country which belongs to all of us. We see this as an act to displace indigenous natives from their ancestral lands and settlements under the guise of government scheme aimed at ensuring lasting peace and stopping the attacks on farming communities by Fulani Herdsmen.
Considering the deep seated mutual suspicions and the friability of the security situation of the state we wish to note that this move will further worsen the deepening crises that has ravage the state.
Gentlemen of the press, only few days ago, some states and socio-cultural groups within the country such as Taraba State, Benue State, Afenifere and Ohaneze Ndigbo respectively, publicly stated their positions regarding the Federal Government’s plan where they highlighted the adverse effects of such a scheme.
On this note, we also wish to join our brothers in rejecting and condemning this barbarism and outdated means of broad day land grabbing aimed at foisting “Fulani settler colonies” across the country by the Buhari led federal government; a government whose primary responsibility is the protection of lives and properties of its citizens without favour and bias.
We wander why displaced farming communities have been left at the mercy of the adverse weather elements in IDP camps without government attention and no efforts being made to ensure they go back to their ancestral lands by government but the same government continues to act in a paternalistic way towards herdsmen. We therefore, also wish to call on the governments to focus all their resources towards recovering the lands of farming communities in some parts of the state which have remained under forceful occupation by these same Fulani herdsmen.
As citizens with rights to demand fair representation, equity and justice from our government, we wish to call on the Lalong led administration in the state to raise to the challenge of protecting the lives and properties of its citizen as well as give force to the repeated calls by Plateau people for a rejection of any form of land grabbing by what ever name it is called and come out openly and clearly to state the peoples rejection of the “Ruga Settlement” policy of the federal government.
We want to call on the Federal government to stay true to the oath its official swore by acting as a father to all as insisting on the forceful implementation of this ill timed and ill motivated scheme will only add further stress and strain on the deeply divided ethno religious fault lines of our country.
We shall not relent in our patriotic duty of holding government accountable and therefore, demand that the Plateau State government comes out openly in rejecting the foisting of this unpopular scheme on the people. We will continue to monitor and keep track of the state governments actions in this regard and will not heisted to mobilise massively against any action by the state government that seeks to provide accommodation for the Ruga Settlement scheme in the state.
We are a law abiding group and will not do anything to breach the peace of the state but will also not give in to forces that seek to subjugate our people in their own land
Thank you
Long live Plateau State!
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria

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Plateau Youth G-17 Describes FG Ruga Settlement Policy Land Grabbing