•Cattle ranch
Concerned Igbo groups have vowed to resist the siting of any RUGA project in any part of Igbo land, saying it is a reversed colonisation and a private business and offers no commercial value or benefit to the people of the geopolitical zone.
The Frontier reports that in Nigeria, “Ruga” is a term for Rural Grazing Areas, an initiative aimed at establishing designated settlements for Fulani herdsmen and their cattle.
The groups made this known today in a statement jointly signed by Ben Nwankwo & Evans Nwankwo Executive Directors, Ambassador for Self-Determination USA, Syvester Onyia, American Veterans Of Igbo Descent AVID President, Maxwell Dede of Rising Sun Group and Rev Father Augustine Odimegwa.
The Igbo concerned groups described the project as a hidden plan to take over their ancestral lands and hand them to Fulani settlers, using agriculture as an excuse, reports Daily Independent.
The statement lamented shortage of land in the Eastern region with over 800 people per square kilometre thereby making the area the most crowded region in Nigeria.
The statement read, “We the concerned people of Igbo land have said it before and we are saying it again, there is no land for RUGA anywhere in Igbo land — not today, not tomorrow, not ever.
“We are already struggling to find land for farming, housing, and industries. So how can anyone expect us to give out land for cows?
“If the government is serious about ranching, let them go to Niger State, which has over 76,000 square kilometres of land—far more than the whole of the Southeast put together.
“We will resist it with everything in us. RUGA is not about peace or development. It is a private business disguised as a government policy. It is a hidden plan to take over our ancestral lands and hand them to Fulani settlers, using agriculture as an excuse.”
The statement expressed worry over the security implications posed by the project particularly with the recent carnage and violence in Benue State which led to the destruction of lives and properties.
The groups called for caution in the RUGA project adding that the Lokpanta cattle market in Abia State has become a hotbed of crime, kidnapping, and killings and would not allow such a problem to spread or continue.
The statement therefore called on the Anambra State Governor, Charles Chukwuma Soludo to tread with caution and stop any further negotiations that have to do with RUGA saying it would amount to an exercise in futility.
“We are using this medium to warn Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State. Stop playing with Igbo lives. Stop negotiating with our blood.You were not elected to sell our land or our future.
“We also call on all governors and politicians in the Southeast who may have collected ₦6 billion each as bribe to support this RUGA project — return the blood money now. The people are watching. “History will remember. And there will be no hiding place for anyone who betrays Igbo land.
“We are not against any Igbo man or woman who wants to do livestock business. In fact, many of our people are running successful farms in Nsukka, Eke, Obollo Afor, and other places.
“But those are private businesses on family land—not federal land grabs under the cover of RUGA.
“What we reject is a plan that will turn us into strangers on our own land, where outsiders come, settle, multiply, and eventually take over our communities. That is reversed colonisation, and we will never allow it,” the statement added.
