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From Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the state government have engaged in verbal war over the latter’s summoning of church leaders to a meeting at the Government House, Benin City, where Governor Godwin Obaseki told them that he has declared a war on land grabbing.
The governor reportedly told the clergymen how the war against land grabbing was his government’s way to ensure a safe and conducive environment for the Edo people to live and do business without harassment and extortion.
But the APC in a statement signed by its State Assistant Publicity Secretary, Victor Osehobo, said the Edo people know for a fact that the reason why land grabbing is a major problem in the state is that the Obaseki government is the biggest culprit.
“As it were, over time, the government has perfected a policy of grabbing people’s land by demolishing their houses and seizing their plots and in many cases claiming them as Government plots. In the process, the state government has earned itself myriads of litigations, which could have been avoided ab initio.
“At a time, the Obaseki government contemplated grabbing the lands belonging to these same church organizations and even attempted to relocate many of them over a spurious land-use plan. Now he wants these same bodies, which are duly registered to apply for fresh registration with his government by presenting building plans.
‘The governor was reported to have said at the meeting: ‘With the support of the Inspector General of Police, we are building trucks with guns and a barrack that will contain 100 men. We are working with the Private Property Protection Committee to come up with a list of petitions which is about 420. We will address all and ensure we end land grabbing in the state'”, the statement said.
The APC contended that “It smacks of cluelessness for Governor Obaseki to announce that he has declared war on land grabbing. What Edo people expected him to declare a war on and long before now was the activities of rampaging criminal herdsmen, kidnappers and bandits, that have been busy terrorizing highways across the State.
“This is the same Governor Obaseki who could not declare war in January, when scores of persons, dressed in military uniform and suspected to be herdsmen invaded several farming communities in Ovia Northeast Local Government Area of Edo State, chased all the villagers away and took control of their farms, homes and properties.
“Mr Obaseki did not also declare a war when last month, more than five persons and several others were maimed as suspected criminal herdsmen attacked Odiguetue, among other agrarian communities in the same Ovia North-East Local Government Area of Edo State.
“Indeed, Governor Obaseki was really busy, politicking, and absent from the state, else he would have known that over 45 communities, including Odiguetue, Ofintebe, Igolo, Okokuo, Abumwenre I and II, Obarenren, Uhiere, Uyimo I and II, all in Ovia Northeast Local government, protested the activities of herdsmen which resulted in killings, destructions of farm produce and forceful evictions from their ancestral homes, by barricading the Lagos – Benin Expressway for hours.
“Is there any wisdom in hounding church leaders about the Obaseki government’s scam of a Benin master plan? Why his choice of church leaders, if not to garner primitive sympathy? Is it not tragic that Mr Obaseki has just woken up, after six years in office and discovered the Benin master plan? Is this not the same plan his predecessor in office strived to implement to the letter but which he chose to abandon since 2016?”
The APC, therefore, advised Governor Obaseki to hand over to the relevant security authorities, all the barracks, the trucks and the guns he is building and has acquired, against land grabbing, saying it will help them better fight crimes and criminality, since the state government is not a security apparatus, just as it appealed to the religious organizations especially the churches and their leaders to be on red alert.
But the Edo State Government in its reaction called on the APC to direct its grievances on the high level of insecurity in the state to President Muhammadu Buhari’s led administration’s inability to secure the lives and property of its citizens and not to the Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki.
The Special Adviser, Media Projects to Edo State Governor, Crusoe Osagie, who spoke for the Government said the federal government, led by the APC is in control of all the security agencies in the country and should be able to deploy them to tackle the teething insecurity in the state and the nations at large.
“On the charge for the state government to deploy its assets to check banditry and herdsmen attacks, the Edo APC is obviously playing the Ostrich. In case they have forgotten, I would like to remind them that the Federal Government – which is controlled by their party, the APC – is constitutionally empowered to address issues of national security.
“The APC-controlled Federal Government is in charge of the machinery of state to fight off banditry and herdsmen/farmer clashes.
“They control the Civil Defense, Nigerian Army, Department of State Services, Nigeria Intelligence Agency and the Nigeria Police Force. Hence, the criticism should be directed at their party at the national level”, he said.
