The Abia State House of Assembly has passed into law the bill to control nomadic cattle rearing and prohibition of grazing routes in the state.
The bill was sponsored by the member representing Isiala Ngwa North State constituency, Mr. Martins Azubuike.
Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Honorable Chikwendu Kalu, said the anti-grazing law is necessary to checkmate the untoward activities of herdsmen who he said have been a major threat to lives, property and peace of the land.
The speaker added that the, “law stipulates that every cattle entering into the state must be registered at the entry point, and be conveyed in a vehicle, failure of which would attract seizure of the cattle and severe sanctions.”
Kalu also noted that the law stipulates strict sanctions for defaulters, charging those saddled with the responsibility of implementing it to be up and doing.
Meanwhile, Bishop David Abioye of the Living Faith Church (Winners’ Chapel) during a recent sermon advised his congregation not to vote for individuals who value cow more than human life in 2019.
Abioye, in a fiery sermon, urged his congregants to be vigilant, adding that ‘they’ are ‘penetrating everywhere’.
Curiously, the Minister of Defense, Mansur Dan-Ali, has called for the suspension of the implementation of the anti-open grazing law in Benue, Ekiti and other parts of the country.
The minister said that the suspension will reduce the tension in troubled states.
He disclosed this on Tuesday after a security meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Dan-Ali, in a statement signed by his Public Relations Officer, Col. Tukur Gusau, said he suggested the suspension of the implementation of anti-open grazing laws in some states while negotiating safe routes for herdsmen.
According to the minister: “There is a need for the Nigeria police and Department of State Services to prosecute all the suspects arrested in the affected states, while negotiating safe routes for the herders.”
The Defense Minister further stated that he informed the president that Operation Last Hold has been launched to flush out insurgents from their hideouts in the Lake Chad Basin.
Those who attended the meeting held behind closed doors inside one of the conference halls of the President’s office include: the Minister of Defence, Brig. Gen. Mansur Dan Ali (retd.); National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; and the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin.
Others were: the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok Ekwe Ibas; a representative of the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar; Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris; and Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar.
But Ekii State governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has kicked against the reported plans by the Federal government to suspend implementation of anti-open grazing law in states.
The anti-grazing law is already operational in Benue, Ekiti and Taraba states. In Ekiti State, the law prohibits open-grazing between 6pm and 7am.
Fayose criticised Buhari, questioning why the government is holding on to nomadic cattle rearing, and vowing that the anti-open grazing law will subsist in Ekiti State.
He urged Buhari to provide a decent life for herdsmen by adopting cattle ranching.
“January this year, the Minister of Defense blamed passage of anti-grazing law in some states as the cause of killings by herdsmen. Today, he is still singing the same song. Is there something to this old system of nomadic cattle rearing that they are not telling Nigerians?
“Why is Buhari not rearing his cows through open grazing? Why is it so difficult for the FG to support cattle ranching?
“Here in Ekiti, the Anti Open Grazing law stays. It is the Presidency that should stop looking the other way while herdsmen go about killing Nigerians.
“Methinks the Presidency should be concerned about how to take the herdsmen out of the bush and give them decent life by embracing cattle ranching.
“How can anyone be pleased subjecting his own people to a life of following cows through the bush from Yobe to Lagos?
“And our President will open his mouth today and say that Nigeria is safe and secure? I doubt if the President reads newspapers,” Fayose tweeted.
