Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
Governors of the south-eastern states have been warned to reject the proposed Federal government’s Ruga Farm Settlement initiative or face the wrath of the people.
Related: Ruga: Tiv leaders to sue Federal Government
The Archbishop of Enugu Province Anglican Communion and Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Most Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma who gave the warning said that any governor in the zone that gives land for Ruga would be forced out of office.
Speaking at St Ebenezer Anglican Church, Independent Layout Phase II, Enugu during a Thanksgiving service of Second Session of the 17th Synod of the diocese, Archbishop Chukwuma said he would personally lead a revolution to stop the governors if they tried to succumb to the enticement of the Federal government.
The cleric who had explained to the congregation the implications of the Ruga Farm Settlement on the zone and the nation at large called on church leaders to speak up and condemn the Ruga move.
He said: “They are giving states N1 billion to accept the Ruga project. I told you I am a spiritual, political mafia; I have told the governors of the South-East states, they must not accept that N1 billion to give land for Ruga.
“If they do it, I will lead a revolution to stop it. So I am using this synod to warn that no governor in the South-East should venture to give land for Ruga otherwise, they will be forced out of government house.”
Charging the people to be watchful and prayerful, Chukwuma said some of them who are religious leaders have their network and were monitoring what goes on in the country, adding that he was not afraid of anybody.
He said: “As I stand here, I am not afraid of Buhari; I’m not afraid of anybody. I am not be afraid of them because greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.
“Church leaders should cry out and condemn this Ruga settlement in all its entirety because it is dangerous and it is part of the foxes that will enter into our local governments and before you know it we are no more indigenes of your place.
Meanwhile, the synod had in its communique signed by the Archbishop, the Synod Secretary, Ven. Dr. Stanley Nweze and the Registrar, Sir H. B. C. Ogboko, asked the Federal government to withdraw the Ruga policy, describing it as obnoxious.
The communique went forward to say: “The synod views this as one of the desperate moves by the Federal government to unduly impose the wish of a particular ethnic group on the rest of the country.
“The synod states that the Federal Government’s proposed Ruga Farm Settlement policy if implemented is capable of exacerbating the already fragile security situation in the country and will cause serious anarchy.”