Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose has said the state is sponsoring a bill against incessant killings by student cultists on the state university campus.
He said that the bill when, passed into Law, would hand out death penalty to anyone found guilty of involvement in cultism and life imprisonment to anyone who accommodate or associate with cultists.
Fayose who announced a reward of N1 million for anyone that offers incontrovertible evidence on a student cultist declared this while interacting with the Ekiti chapter of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), an umbrella body for all farmers in the state who had been invited to present their challenges in developing agriculture in the state.
Speaking at an interactive meeting held at the government office, Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, Ademola Okeya, State chairman of the union, said: “Fayose was the first governor to recognise and support farmers during his first term in 2005 and 2006. We have all now come together under one umbrella, our request includes government to help us complete our Farmers House, give us a bus for movement, especially support for our members’ representation for 40 people in Abuja meeting which is forthcoming. We also want to assure the governor that we are part of his continuity programme, we also want loan scheme as from early next for the planting seasons, as well as equipment and hybrid seedlings for farming for our members.”
Advising the farmers to continue to be united, deputy governor Olusola Kolapo said it is unity that would make all of them enjoy the benefits from the government, “the state government recently gave the revolving loan of N10m for procuring cocoa chemicals. Some of you didn’t get it because you were not united. Now that you have now united as AFAN, you will all benefit from what the government will give.”
“We need farm settlements, which would enable farmers to do their work properly. Moving agriculture project forward would not be by fire brigade approach. It needs proper planning and agriculture business is thriving in the north because of land clearing over there is much easier and very cheaper compared what obtains here.”
“There is also the challenge of the paucity of funds. We are planning and laying a solid foundation for agriculture, we just procured four new tractors, and we have 12 serviceable tractors already available making them 16. We have already started work on provision of hybrid seedlings and very soon it will be ready. We are waiting for the Federal Government to complete the storage facilities it is building in the state for us. We have been able to tackle the challenge of herdsmen and they no longer disturb us on our farms.We must also specialise on what plants we want to plant as a farmer and stop being a jack of all trade in the venture.” The Governor added.
While assuring the farmers that his government was ready to support them in their quest to improve productivity, governor Fayose charged his deputy and the state commissioner for Agriculture, Kehinde Odebunmi to urgently work out the modalities of getting the agricultural loans available from relevant banks for the farmers in the state.
Speaking about the recent killings at the state university, the governor said: “It saddened me that students are being killed in the name of cultism. We are sponsoring a bill in the State House of Assembly, anyone caught associating with cultists will face life imprisonment, anyone confirmed to be a cultist will be punished with death sentence.
“If you are caught involved in cultism, we will give you death sentence, we will treat you as kidnappers. If you accommodate a cult member in your house, you will get life imprisonment. This fight will not be selected, whether you are PDP or APC you will be made to face the sentence,” he said.
Speaking about his government and lambasting the opposition, governor Fayose further said: “I am very close to the people and they see me every day on the streets, good conscience fears no foe. I have a passion to fulfil all your requests but the paucity of funds has handicapped me. Ekiti will continue to pay N1.1 billion every month for the next 19 years as a result of the huge debts Fayemi incurred.
“The teachers they said couldn’t do well and were chasing away from service are the same who are now teaching our students and making them come tops in national exams because now we give them promotion, cash awards and cars. Also, because we are proactive and value our people, we have since tamed the Fulani herdsmen menace. Now those who condemned us for bringing up the law then, are now buying into the idea.”
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