Benue Leaders, NKST Church Reject FG Ranching Pilot, Demand IDP Return and Security First
- “Benue was Selected Without Consent” — Apex Groups
- Church Says Land-Based Policy Premature Amid Crisis
Our Correspondent
Benue’s apex sociocultural organizations and the NKST Church have jointly rejected the Federal Government’s designation of the state as a pilot for the National Ranching Programme, insisting that security, justice and the return of displaced persons must come first.
In separate statements, the Mzough U Tiv, Ochetoha K’Idoma, Omi Ny’Igede, and the NKST Synod Executive Committee said the FG’s plan was announced without consultation and risks rewarding violence with land.
In a joint position paper released in Makurdi on August 14, 2026, the three sociocultural groups described the policy as “the permanent appropriation of ancestral farmland for ethnically exclusive pastoral settlements imposed by federal fiat.”
The paper, signed by retired Air Commodore Titus Agbecha, Prof. Yakubu Ochefu, and Mr. Daniel Omeno, was addressed to President Bola Tinubu, Governor Hyacinth Alia, and the Minister of Livestock Development, Alhaji Idi Mukhtar Maiha.
The groups said the Minister announced on August 11 that Benue was among six pilot states due to “high incidences of farmer-herder conflict,” calling it a “perverse incentive structure” that rewards violence. Citing over 7,000 deaths and 1.5 million IDPs since 2015, with 17 of 23 LGAs affected, they argued the FG is proposing “permanent pastoral settlements on land violently taken from farmers” instead of prosecuting perpetrators.
The NKST Church, in a statement on August 23 signed by General Secretary Rev. TA Targba, echoed the concerns, stating that the Church’s objection is not to ranching but to “the timing and circumstances.
“NKST, which described itself as a principal victim of the crisis, said 753 worship centres have been destroyed or closed and 5,987 members killed across Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa States. Homes, schools, health facilities and farms have also been abandoned, leaving communities in IDP camps.
“Restore the Displaced, Rebuild the Destroyed, and Protect the Living” before any land-based policy, the Church demanded.
The sociocultural groups said the announcement violates the Land Use Act and Benue’s Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law, 2017, upheld by the Federal High Court in 2019.
They faulted the FG for not consulting the Governor, State Assembly, traditional councils, or sociocultural bodies.
“A policy that purports to resolve farmer-herder conflict by consulting only one side of the conflict is not a peace initiative. It is an imposition,” the paper stated.
Both the groups and NKST rejected the “Renewed Hope Livestock Villages” model.
The sociocultural bodies said facilities with housing, schools, clinics and markets amount to “permanent human settlements,” not ranches, and would create “demographic permanence.”
NKST warned that allocating land vacated by violence for ranching sends the dangerous signal that “violence succeeded” and could undermine national unity.
The groups also traced the policy to Cattle Colonies, RUGA and NLTP, calling it the “fourth rejected iteration.
While clarifying support for “modern, voluntary and lawful ranching with community consent,” both parties said they “categorically reject” Benue’s inclusion in the pilot.
NKST also called for reconstruction of destroyed institutions and rehabilitation of farmlands.
“Benue is ancestral land, not an experiment space. We are not opposed to livestock modernization. We shall not accept demographic engineering disguised as agricultural policy,” the sociocultural groups concluded.
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