Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike says an anti-open grazing bill law will be sent to the state House of Assembly to give legal backing to the open grazing ban.
The Governor submitted that the legal backing is meant to protect the people of the state from killer herdsmen.
Wike made the view known on Wednesday during the inauguration of the Isaiah Odoli/Omerelu Streets in New GRA Phase 1 in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of the state according to a statement by his media adviser, Kevin Ebiri.
He added that the decision is in line with the resolution by the Southern Governors Forum to ban open grazing in their region.
“You can’t go to the farm anymore, those who rear cattle, they’ll not allow your crops to grow. Let me say clearly, now that the House of Assembly has come back, we have to submit the bill on Anti-Open Grazing as we agreed in the Southern Governors Forum.
“So, that everybody must understand it, it’s clear, without any hesitation, we must do it to protect our farms, to protect our women, to protect our youths so that nobody will go and kill them,” the governor stated
Wike lamented that Nigeria has been on life support since the All Progressives Congress (APC) took over as things have gone worse and nobody knows what will happen next.
“The exchange rate has now gotten to N510 to a dollar. When they took over, it was N150 to a dollar. They said they’ll give employment. Do we have employment today? Are your children employed?”
“Since APC came into power, you can now see what Nigeria has turned to. Each day you wake up, you hear people are being killed. If you watch television and read the news in newspapers, you will hear so and so number are killed or kidnapped in so and so state.
“That is not what I thought all of us needed. The country is on oxygen (life support). Nobody knows what will happen next. As we are today, Nigeria is in dire need of help. Nigeria needs prayers; to our mothers and sisters, you must kneel down and pray to God to salvage this country,” Wike lamented.
Former Senate President, David Mark who commissioned the road project, hailed the Rivers State Governor as someone who delivers on his promise.
He added that the people of the state are lucky to have someone like Wike as their Governor.
“All the year-round, you are bringing people to come and commission project here, like me.
“Now, you have a governor who has fulfilled his promises and done beyond his promises.
“The difference between him and just providing infrastructure is very clear. He provides his own with a human face. There’s humility in what he’s doing.
“If you get up today and say Rivers State, this is where we are going, everybody will follow. If you go round Rivers State – and I’m sure all of you know this – and they say who is the leader of politics, they will tell you it is your governor,” Mark stated.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Senate, Dr. Ajibola Basiru on Wednesday insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari has been given wrong information by his team regarding the laws on grazing routes in any part of Nigeria.
Basiru in a personally signed statement in Abuja titled, “No Law of Grazing Routes in Nigeria: Either North or South” stated that no law exists any longer on grazing routes in the country.
He added that the law on grazing reserves, recognized as a state law in the 1999 constitution, actually criminalized open grazing.
This article was originally published on Nigeria News