HERDSMEN KILLINGS: Taraba joins Benue, bans Open Grazing

In a bid to check the incidence of rampaging herdsmen killings across the state, Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku has signed the state Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Bill into law.

A statement released by the state government said that the bill was forwarded to Taraba State House of Assembly by the governor as an executive bill and was passed by the lawmakers last Wednesday, after the adoption of the report of the ad-hoc committee.

The committee had conducted public hearing on the bill across the three senatorial districts of the state.

The statement also revealed that the signing of the bill took place at the executive chamber of the government house, Jalingo, and was witnessed by the Deputy Governor, Speaker of the Assembly and other principal officers including the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), commissioners, Commissioner of Police and other security chiefs.

Ishaku said, while signing the bill into law, that it became necessary to have such a law because of the dangerous trend open grazing had assumed in the state and the entire country in recent years. He added that Taraba had witnessed strange practices of grazing by herdsmen who are strangers to the state.

“The introduction of this executive bill was necessitated by the dangerous trend open grazing had assumed in Taraba State, and indeed the whole of Nigeria in recent years. Within the past two years, Nigerians have woken up to battle with a strange practice of grazing by herdsmen who are strangers to our state.

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“These herdsmen have within this short period of time turned our traditional farmers-herdsmen complementary practices fatal and sorrowful. The activities of these herdsmen have not only resulted in total destruction of farmlands, but also heartless killings of farmers using AK47 automatic guns and, in most cases, destruction of settlements, rustling of cattle belonging to our indigenous herdsmen and other cattle rearers”, the governor said.

Killings by herdsmen across the country have witnessed an upsurge, generating anxiety and outcry by many Nigerians. So far, not much has been done the Federal Government to curtail the menace.

With this development, Taraba joins Benue state in the list of states to have enacted laws detailing measures to regulate grazing in a bid to curtail its excesses and forestall its associated conflicts.

 

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