The Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, on Saturday, reaffirmed his commitment to enforcing the ban on open grazing of cattle in the state.
Ikpeazu made this known during a zoom meeting with Abia journalists under the auspices of Abia Media Forum.
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The governor said that a bill was already in place to enforce the ban and to checkmate the activities of criminal elements disguising as nomads.
Recall that 17 Southerrn governors after their meeting in Asaba, Delta State capital, recently, resolved to ban open grazing of cattle in their states.
The governors had stated that open grazing of cattle had often caused conflicts between host communities and herders which had led to several deaths in some states.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reported Ikpeazu as saying: “We are now at the point of making sure that we enforce and implement it and even in doing that I must also share what I see as a challenge to the enforcement of that law.
“The law is in place and we are taking steps to enforce it. It has become imperative that we enforce that law strictly because we just noticed that we have big-time trouble in our hands.
“We have those that we refer to as criminal herdsmen; they are different from the ordinary herdsmen that we have been living with all these years.
“We now have in our mist bandits that have infiltrated from the rest of West Africa and other parts of Africa and their assignment is to come here rape, kill and kidnap people for money
“It is now very imperative that we enforce that law,’’ he added.