* Directs strict enforcement after 6 months grace period
Ogun State governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, on Thursday, signed the anti-open grazing bill into law.
The Bill is to regulate Animal Grazing and the Establishment of Cattle Ranching in the state.
The governor, shortly after assenting to the Bill at his office in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, directed security agencies to enforce the provision of the law in the interest of the State.
The governor said that the anti-open grazing issue had been a subject matter which had been discussed along the length and breadth of the country and which “we southern governors have discussed and endorsed”.
Abiodun said cattle rearers in the State have a six-month period of grace before it becomes illegal for them to occupy unapproved public areas and private land with their livestock for grazing.
He added that the law further prohibits the act of moving cattle around public places by herders.
He hinted that a committee headed by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Adeola Odedina, has been set up to midwife the implementation and enforcement of the new law.
The signing of the anti-open grazing law by the Governor followed the decision of the Southern Governors’ Forum last August, setting the September deadline to pass the law across member states.
There were pockets of crises witnessed in the State as a result of alleged open grazing in the Yewa axis of the State in April, necessitating the setting up of a peace committee headed by a former House of Representatives, Hon. Kayode Oladele.
The crises this year pitched Hausa-Fulani settlers against their Yoruba host communities.
It is expected that the anti-open grazing law will prevent the spread of the menace across the State.
The governor said: “By implication, in six months, it will become unlawful to openly graze cattle or other livestock in the State.”