The enforcement of the anti-open grazing law in Benue state has been instrumental to the restoration of peace between farmers and herders’ in the state.
Besides, the drastic reduction of incidences of violent clashes in the state in the last one year is largely because of the enforcement of the law against unrestricted cattle grazing, according to the state deputy governor, Benson Abounu.
Abounu said although the state was roundly condemned by those opposed to the prohibition of opening grazing law, the deliberate persistence of Governor Samuel Ortom and the state House of Assembly has paid off as the hitherto frequent clashes that had led to loss of lives and destruction of properties, especially farmlands, homes and socio-economic ventures of the people, were no longer rampant.
The deputy governor stated this in Abuja at the interactive session organised by the National Boundary Commission (NBC) for members of the State Boundaries Commission of the North-central states.
Giving a breakdown of boundary activities in the state, Abounu said previous clashes between farmers in the state and herders had defied efforts of past governments until the present administration of Governor Ortom decided to take the bull by the horns by adopting the international best practice of ranching against cries by external forces in favour of the primitive open grazing approach.
“The Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law that regulates grazing activities in the state has been hugely successful. The law has helped a lot in maintaining peaceful co-existence between farmers and herders’ in the state.
“This is contrary to the initial protests and insistence of selfish interests against the progressive move of the state. In fact, the few cases of clashes had been largely cases where some herders unknowingly went beyond their Boundary.
“So we have recorded drastic reduction in cases of farmers and herders’ clashes and we are glad that the present administration in the last six years has deliberately worked to ensure peaceful co-existence between us and our neighbours.
“We have resolved issues of boundary misunderstanding between us and Cross River and we have invited the NBC to come for the demarcation of our borders”, he said.
He added that it is the same with Pleteau, Taraba and Ebonyi.
He said the adoption of third party intervention strategy where key stakeholders; traditional royals, youth councils and respective state governments were involved has ensured peaceful resolution of these misunderstandings.
