On Tuesday, the State Governor, Willie Obiano, said that the ban on open grazing by the Fulani Cattle Breeders is still in force in the state. As part of further measures to prevent farmers-herders clashes in Anambra State.
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He noted that the ban will help to check certain excessed herders operating in the state. He also directed the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Monday Kuryas, to within one week, produce data of herdsmen operating within the state.
The governor gave the directives during an expanded Cattle Menace Committee meeting held in Aguleri, in Anambra East Council Area of the state.
According to the governor, the measure will help strengthen the state’s security architecture, emphasizing that itinerant herders and open grazing remain banned in the state.
He added that the local herdsmen who are well known in the state will be accommodated and should help to fish out the bad ones perpetrating the crime.
He warned that drastic steps will be taken after the meeting to enforce the directive.
He asked the committee to fix compensations to reflect the current market value of cows and crop items in the state.
The Meeting resolved that those concerned should pay a backlog of compensations owed for items damaged during the past crisis in various affected communities.
While it was agreed that the sum of 12 million nairas owed to farmers be paid for damaged crops by the herders, about six million nairas was agreed to be paid to the herdsmen for cows killed, as well as three million naira compensation for those that died and all compensations are to be paid within one week, Obiano directed.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the meeting, the South East Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Alhaji Gidado Sidikki, affirmed that in trying to solve the problem, Miyetti Allah nationwide has banned night grazing, but the directive to ban open grazing will jeopardize their businesses in the state and the entire South-East zone.
Siddiki augured that since the government knows that the ban on open grazing will put to an end, the conflict between the farmers and herders in the country, the federal government should engage the herders in training and retraining on a modern system of grazing.
“Most of my members are illiterates, they don’t have the knowledge of modern mechanized farming, so government should employ experts to train and retrain the herders on modern system grazing, he added.
On data collection, Sidikki, pledge to support the police on the exercise to fish out the bad ones among them.
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He appealed to the South-East governors, to help talk to their subjects to stop tagging his members as kidnappers, rapists, armed robbers, noting that the act makes them look as if they are not part of Nigeria.
He called on all Miyetti Allah members operating in the state to obey the governor’s directives and continue to live in peace with their host communities.
Present at the meeting was security commanders in the state, Speaker of the state Assembly, Rt. Hon Uchenna Okafor, Coordinator of the State Vigilante Service, CP Ikechukwu Aduba rtd, traditional rulers, Presidents-general, House of Assembly members, youths of affected communities and Miyetti Allah leadership in the state, among others.
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