Forest guards, farmers and commercial drivers in Akure on Thursday staged a protest march in support of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s order to Fulani herdsmen to vacate the state’s forest reserves in seven days.
The protesters barricaded some streets and carried placards in which they urged governor not to reverse his order.
Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Comrade Jacob Adejo, in his address, said commercial drivers were no longer safe in the state.
The State Governor had on Monday order herdsmen to vacate the state forest reserves.
In swift and apparently coordinated ripostes, the national Secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Rearers Association and the Presidency attempted to rein in the governor.
While the leadership of Miyetto Allah claimed that the governor did not give such order but only asked that those in the forest reserves shoyld be duly registered, the Presidency, through a spokesperson Garba Shehu, cautioned the governor against adopting extra conditional measures on the issue.
The state government had issued a statement to offer further clarifications, with Afenifere, Southwest leaders and some Senior Advocates of Nigeria rising in stout defence of Governor Akeredolu’s action.
The Thursday protest is seen in some quarters as a move to encourage the governor not to backpedal on the issued of securing the forests of the state and ridding it of criminals elements hiding in the forests to perpetrate their dastardly acts of kidnapping and killing.
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