Simon Lalong, the governor of Plateau State, has dismissed reports that he had adopted the cattle colony policy of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement signed by Dan Manjang, special adviser on media and publicity to the governor of Plateau State, and released to journalists on Friday, January 26, 2018, Lalong stated that the rumor is the handiwork of political mischief makers who wanted to gain political mileage out of a very serious national issue.
The statement, e-mailed to The Trent, read in full:
The attention of the Executive Governor of Plateau State, Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong has been drawn to the news making the rounds, particularly in the Social Media that “parts of Riyom, Barkin Ladi and Bokkos Local Government Areas have been carved out for the creation of colonies for cattle, in fulfilment of his promises to the Fulani who have pressured him, to either cede those areas or he faces the other side of their viciousness which may cost his aspirations”.
The Governor herein after state unequivocally that this thinking is not only the figment of the imagination of its authors, who want to make political capital out of it, but false, malicious and highly mischievous.
Governor Simon Bako Lalong has and does not contemplate such action and he further calls on all good citizens of Plateau to bury such imagination of these elements, who are bent on throwing the State into confusion. Cattle colonies are not in the imagination of Governor Lalong.
Consequently, the Governor urges all peace loving citizens of Plateau State to discountenance such mischievous information but to gravitate towards issues that unite us rather than those that divide us.
