As more Southern States begin to outlaw open grazing, there has been little enforcement as herders still practice grazing openly.
According to The Nation, herders have been grazing their cattle, goats and rams since the take-off of the ban on September 1.
Among other states, only Ondo State has so far prosecuted violators of the ban on open grazing.
The State Security Network – Amotekun – on Thursday arrested three herdsmen and 56 cows for allegedly violating the anti-grazing law.
The suspects were arrested at Iwara, a community in Ikare Akoko, headquarters of Akoko North East Local Government, after allegedly destroying farmland.
The ban on open grazing in the southern states comes despite a directive by President Muhammadu Buhari demanding the retracing of colonial grazing routes across the country.
Meanwhile, the Benue State government yesterday insisted that there was no going back on the Anti- Open Grazing Law passed by the State House of Assembly and signed by Governor Samuel Ortom.
Reacting to comments by the National Secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Baba Ngelzarma, branding the law as a failure, Ortom’s Chief Press Secretary CPS, Terver Akase, declared that the law has come to stay and there is nothing MACBAN or anyone else can do about it.
He said, “…we must make it clear to Miyetti Allah groups and others who want Benue to repeal the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law to stop daydreaming. The law has come to stay, and no amount of sponsored propaganda can compel the State Government to repeal it.”
