The group wondered why the federal government was anxious to create settlements in ancestral lands of indigenous communities while leaving the indigenous native farmers displaced by headers' attacks to remain in internally displaced persons’ camps while their lands are balkanized.
Youths in Plateau State, under the ageis of Youth G17, have rejected the move by the Federal Government of Nigeria to create settlements for herdsmen in selected states, including Plateau.
While speaking to journalists in Jos, the spokesman for the group, Song Muru, said, "the new scheme is designed to displace the indigenous population from their ancestral lands, cautioning that the new policy will worsen the crisis situation and deepen the antagonism between the fulanis and the natives instead of resolving the present conflicts".
The group said it joined the Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohaneze Ndigbo and its Yoruba counterpart, Afenifere in rejecting the Ruga herders’ settlements proposed by the federal government.
Muru called on the Plateau state government to unequivocally condemn and reject the planned settlements, warning that they would hold it accountable for the protection of the lives and property of the people.
He wondered why the federal government was anxious to create settlements in ancestral lands of indigenous communities while leaving the indigenous native farmers displaced by headers' attacks to remain in internally displaced persons’ camps while their lands are balkanized.
The group cautioned that while they would be law-abiding, they would also not watch their people subjugated in their own land.