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President Buhari.
The RUGA settlement proposed by the Federal Government for herdsmen is a subtle attempt by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to forcefully cede lands across the country for the Fulani people, and this is totally rejected by the people of Urhoboland in Deta State.
This is the declaration of the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), the umbrella union of all Urhobos which decried the RUGA proposal for the Fulani who are less than five per cent of Nigeria’s population.
UPU in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Abe Oshevire, described the RUGA proposal as unreasonable, uncharitable, callous and unfair and insensitive to the feelings of the majority of Nigerians.
The full text of the statement reads:
URHOBO REJECTS RUGA SETTLEMENT

The Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), worldwide wishes to reject in its totality the Federal Government’s proposed Ruga settlement for herdsmen, which is a subtle attempt by the government to forcefully cede lands across the country to the Fulani people, who are less than five percent of Nigeria’s total population.
By insisting on going ahead with the unpopular and repugnant policy, whether optional for states as claimed by the Presidency, the Federal Government has openly demonstrated it’s insensitivity to the feelings and yearnings of other Nigerians.
It is most unreasonable, uncharitable, callous and unfair to impose a policy, no matter how good such a policy might be in the eye of the initiator, on the majority, just to satisfy the whims and caprices of a tiny minority.
It is indefensible that this government is bent on implementing a policy that has been stoutly rejected by virtually every ethnic nationality in the country. Are we a conquered people? Are we not in a free country and practising democracy, where the will of the people should prevail? We are all equal stakeholders in the Nigerian project. There are no second class citizens in Nigeria, certainly, not the Urhobos.

Signed:

Hon. Abel Oshevire
Nat. Pub. Sec., UPU