Group Tasks Obaseki on Passage of Anti-Open Grazing Bill

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin-city

A group, New Nigerian Initiative (NNI), yesterday called on the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, and the state House of Assembly to quickly enact the anti-grazing law as directed by the 17 southern states governors at the Asaba Declaration in May this year.

The 17 southern governors had at a meeting in Asaba, Delta State, agreed that each state in the region should before September 1, 2021, pass the anti-grazing law to checkmate the menace of killer herders and incessant kidnappings in the region.

Edo State and few other states like Imo and Ebonyi are yet to do so like other states.

However, speaking at a protest at the premises of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council, Chairman of the group, Uwadiae Odigie, said the unspeakable horror being perpetuated by Fulani herdsmen on peaceful and law-abiding people of Edo State is no longer acceptable.

He urged the state governor and the state House of Assembly to promptly pass the bill to ban open grazing in the state.

According to Odigie, “This organisation, moved by the unspeakable horror being perpetuated by the herders on the peaceful and law-abiding people of Edo State, initiated a bill on the need to ‘ban open grazing in Edo State’, and the bill has since been sent to the Edo State House of Assembly for consideration and passage.

“After waiting in vain, we made spirited efforts to see the Governor, Obaseki, to intervene, but at the end of the day, we were directed to see the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture.

“We have been mounting pressure on the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Hon Marcus Onobu, on the urgent need to pass the bill to ban open grazing in the state, but all efforts have remained abortive.”

He continued: “Now it has been transparently and sufficiently established that Fulani herdsmen are the ones unleashing terror and fear in Edo State by the horrible and shocking cases of the late Jide Sowore and the recent kidnapping of the elder statesman, Dickson Imasogie, among other isolated cases.

“We are worried over the inability of the Edo State Government to respond to this most cold-blooded and calculated monsters, Fulani herdsmen, who have turned the state into a barbaric sanctuary.”