Abiodun signs anti-open grazing bill into law, gives herders six months ultimatum

Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, yesterday signed the anti-open grazing bill into law.

Abiodun, who assented to the bill during a security council meeting in the State Secretariat at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, urged the security agencies to swing immediately into action and enforce the law.

The signing of the anti-open grazing law by the governor followed the decision of the Southern Governors’ Forum in August, setting the September deadline to pass the law across the states.

The Ogun State House of Assembly had on July 8, 2021, passed the bill.

The Speaker of the House, Olakunle Oluomo, had subsequently transmitted a clean copy to Abiodun for assent.

The governor said: “This is a subject matter that has been discussed along the length and breadth of the country and which we southern governors have discussed and endorsed.”

Cattle rearers, according to Abiodun, have a six-month period of grace before it will become illegal in Ogun State for them to occupy unapproved public areas and private land with their livestock for grazing.

The law, he noted further, was also to prohibit the act of moving cattle around public places by herders.

The governor, however, said a committee headed by the State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Adeola Odedina, had been set up to midwife the implementation and enforcement of the new law.