HERDSMEN KILLINGS: Defense Minister insists Benue, other states suspend anti-open grazing law

Minister of Defense, Mansur Dan-Ali, on Tuesday advised states where there is anti-open grazing law to suspend implementation of the law so as to reduce killings.

He called on Benue, Taraba, Rivers and Ekiti states to suspend the implementation of the anti-grazing law, while also nothing that there was need for the Nigeria police and Department of State Services (DSS) “to prosecute all the suspects arrested in the affected states while negotiating safe routes for the herders.”

The minister stated this when he spoke with State House correspondents on Tuesday after President Muhammadu Buhari’s meeting with security chiefs at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

According to the Defense Minister, President Buhari and the security agencies have been making concerted efforts to ensure the matter comes to an end, contrary to the claim by some Nigerians that the killings resulting from the clashes between herdsmen and farmers are being neglected and poorly handled by the government and security agencies.

He went further to state that Buhari has launched Operation Last Hold to flush out insurgents from their hideouts in the Lake Chad Basin.

READ ALSO: National Assembly declares full war against Buhari

Speaking also, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, revealed that there was a plan to in two weeks’ time deploy a team comprising the military, police and civil defence to Zamfara State to make sure there is concentrated protection in the troubled areas in the state.

Among those at the meeting with Buhari were the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mohammed Babagana Monguno; Minister of Defense, Mansur Dan-Ali; Director General of the NIA, Ahmed Abubakar; and IGP Idris.

 

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