Eminent Igbo leaders, under the aegis of Igbo Elders Consultative Forum, have said they will hold the Governors in the Southeast responsible for any killing arising from herders-farmers clashes in Igbo land.

The Forum stated that while the governors had the resources to facilitate the enactment of anti-open grazing laws in their domains in order to bring an end to the lingering crisis involving pastoralists and farmers, it was disturbed that some of the governors in the region were reluctant to do so even as innocent citizens were being killed.

READ ALSO 2023: Ebonyi group disowns Umahi over prayer for another Buhari

The Chairman of the forum and former Governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, made the remarks while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Monday.

He said the rate at which armed herdsmen were killing innocent youths in the South-East and the South-South was worrisome.=AGkb-H_qFQJZUf13EzLcY7MAr-qUaPknYGJWDmVCrxVVhAjCzBNzRqkmDkHIve2KViy0I-7hzV542sMebuSg0y_LlNSWwmTZab_OA4pc&pvsid=1822927883262920&pem=429&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vanguardngr.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fonesignal-free-web-push-notifications%2Fsdk_files%2FOneSignalSDKWorker.js%3FappId%3D18a7f455-9427-411f-8866-112a9c5f4ceb&eae=0&fc=896&brdim=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C1366%2C0%2C1366%2C728%2C1366%2C657&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7CopeEbr%7C&abl=CS&pfx=0&fu=0&bc=31&ifi=3&uci=a!3&btvi=6&fsb=1&xpc=lY6uoaTkmL&p=https%3A//www.vanguardngr.com&dtd=M

Ezeife said, “Our attention has been drawn to the tactical delay or even outright reluctance of some states in the Southeast to pass anti-open grazing law as resolved by the recent meeting of the Southern Governors’ Forum that each state in the South should enact an anti-open grazing law by September 1, 2021.

“It is expected that every state in the South-east should not only pass the anti-open grazing law within this period, but also put in place appropriate mechanisms for immediate implementation of the law in the state, otherwise the laudable objective of enacting the law for the purpose of minimizing conflicts between farmers and herders, as well as promoting ranching and other modern pastoral methods, will be defeated.

“Any state that has failed to comply with the resolution of the Southern Governors’ is insensitive,  unpatriotic and anti-people as the reluctance or arrogant refusal to comply with that decision is considered a coup against the masses of Southern Nigeria. 

“While we commend Enugu and Abia States for their efforts to empanel legislation on anti-open grazing, we urge the other states in the South, especially in the South-east and other Igbo speaking states of the South-South to put in place necessary machinery to comply with the Southern Governors’ resolution or be liable for aborting the popular will and desire of our people. The Governors and the State Assemblies of delinquent states, especially in the South-East should be held responsible for non-compliance.” 

The Chairman of the Forum also warned that politicians involved in the alleged plot to scuttle the zoning of the 2023 presidential ticket of the major political parties to the South should be prepared to struggle without the votes of the South-east states.

The Forum, however, appealed to politicians in the South-west and South-South to micro-zone the next presidency to the South-east region.

He said, “We also view with grave concern the concerted efforts of some unpatriotic Nigerians, in concert with some of our sons and political leaders, to scuttle the resolution of Southern Governors that the 2023 presidency of Nigerian be zoned to the South for the sake of peace, justice, equity and fairness.

“The Presidency has to be zoned to the South, and we believe that our brothers of the South-South and South-west shall be considerate enough to micro-zone it to the South-east. 

“We also hasten to warn that any political party that tinkers will this laudable demand that the 2023 presidency be zoned to the South, and do otherwise by zoning elsewhere, should be prepared to struggle without the votes of our people.”

Ezeife also called for the urgent restructuring of the country, saying that without it Nigeria will disintegrate.

He said, “Restructuring includes resource control, but it is not limited to control of resources. There is this feeling and it is wrong to think that if we restructure the country, no oil money will go to the North again. That is not true. 

“It is not political to, one day, cut off the supply of money to any State or Local Government in the name of restructuring. We can nationalise the major mineral resources and then give a higher percentage of revenue to the region where it is coming from. 

“But every Nigerian must gain from what is in Nigeria. Without restructuring, we are not going to make progress as a nation. The country will disintegrate.”