Ekiti State Government, yesterday, said that cattle grazing would henceforth be monitored in the state and the law regulating it strictly enforced.
Chairman of the Farmers/Herders Peace Committee in the state, Brig.-Gen. Ebenezer Ogundana (rtd), who stated this during a peace committee meeting in Ado-Ekiti, said that anybody caught contravening any section of the “Prohibition of Cattle and Other Ruminants Grazing in Ekiti State Law, 2016” would be prosecuted.
He recalled that the grazing law specifically stated that no cattle or other ruminants shall by any means move or graze at night, adding that cattle movement and grazing are restricted to the hours between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.”
According to him, Section 4, sub-section 1-3 expressly stated that any herdsmen found in possession of firearms and other offensive weapons shall be charged with terrorism, adding that any confiscated cattle shall be taken to government cattle ranches at Erinfun, Iworoko and any other designated areas as may be directed and any property or farm products destroyed by the cattle shall be valued by the agricultural officers and made to be paid for by the herdsmen.
He said: “Any unregistered herdsman who commits a crime within the state shall on conviction be liable to five years imprisonment while any person within the state who harbours, aids or assists an unregistered herdsman to graze on any land in Ekiti State shall, on conviction, be liable to two years imprisonment. Also, any person who intentionally kills any cattle within the state out of vengeance shall, on conviction, be liable to one year imprisonment.”
Ogundana stressed that nothing would be allowed to jeopardise the peaceful co-existence of all stakeholders in the state.
In his remarks, the state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Ebenezer Boluwade, frowned on the reported destruction of crops, farmlands and valuable property and appealed to herders to properly guide their cattle to curb the bad trend.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Ekiti State chapter of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), MohammaduNasamu, has pledged to help to sustain the relative peace between herders and farmers in the state.
Nasamu promised to sensitise his people on the need to maintain peace in the interest of all.
