Amidst the challenges of food security, the Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) has said herders have taken over the administration of fishing and agrarian communities and were levying taxes on the people of Kogi State while sacking them from their farmlands and fishing grounds.
The group while briefing journalists in Abuja yesterday said the herders were equally expanding their control to other communities, thereby creating unrest and displacement of people.
KECS chairman, Sule Iyaji, appealed to President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the security situation, particularly in Omala and Dekina local government areas and other parts of Kogi State.
He said the urgent intervention of the president would prevent bloodshed and recourse to self-help by the populace.
KECS accused Governor Usman Ododo of neglecting the interests of the people of Kogi East, who constitute over 50 per cent of the state’s population.
They said Ododo had made only two appointments of commissioners from Kogi East, in a deliberate attempt to exclude them from decision making and governance.