‘They want to turn our ancestral land to Cow Republic’ – Benue Youths reject Water Resources Bill

A group known as the Benue Youth Forum (BYF) has advised the National Assembly to reject the Water Resources Bill to save its name from descent into disrepute.

The group, in a statement in Makurdi, insisted that RUGA, cattle colonies, grazing reserves and Water Resources Bill were fingers of the same evil hand that wants to deny the people of Middle Belt, particularly those within the Benue Valley of their ancestral lands and turn same for the creation of a “Cow Republic.”

The statement signed by its president, Kuanum Terrence, said there were indications that the bill, if passed by the National Assembly, will be greeted by spontaneous negative reactions from across the country.

“Nigerians have vowed never to surrender their lands for RUGA in whatever veils it is introduced. We advise that the Buhari administration should allow the people to have their way. We expect the National Assembly to throw out the Water Resources bill when it resumes sitting, in the interest of majority of Nigerians.

“We expect Senators and House of Representatives members who have good conscience to stage a walk-out from any sitting that favours passage of the Water Resources bill. They owe generations of Nigerians including those yet unborn this singular duty.”

Terrence said it was on record that Governor Samuel Ortom had raised a patriotic objection to the reintroduction of the National Water Resources Bill to the ninth National Assembly on the grounds that it contravened the constitution and also subverted provisions of the Land Use Act. He, therefore, wondered why a group known as Middle Belt Conscience Group (MBCG) would rise to challenge the governor for speaking against the National Water Resources Bill.

“The National Water Resources Bill is a well orchestrated plot to turn Nigerians to slaves in their own country,” he insisted.