By Stephen Osu Jalingo
Governor of Taraba state, Darius Dickson Ishaku, yesterday signed the Taraba state Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law 2017 and provided six months of grace to grazers for the movement of livestock in the state to the designated ranching areas. According to him, the law became necessary because of how dangerous the trend of grazing has become in the state and the Nigerian nation in general. He said the killer herdsmen seemed to defy all solutions by security agencies nationwide “and unfortunately none of them to his knowledge has been apprehended.” “Within the past two years Nigeria has woken up to battle with the strange practice of grazing by herdsmen who are strangers to our state, these herdsmen have within this short period of time turned our traditional farmersherdsmen complementary practice fatal and sorrowful,” he said.
He added that the “activities of these violent herdsmen have not only resulted to total destruction of farmlands, but heartless killings of farmers using sophisticated weapons.” Ishaku, while commending the leadership and members of the state assembly for their collective efforts to have the law in place in good time, said he “believes that the law will improve the social economic lives of the citizenry.” He noted that during the period of the public hearing by the members, there was pressure on the House to drop the bill from a few individuals, but that the majority of the people wanted it. The governor further disclosed that pilot ranches “will be established within the three senatorial zones of the state within the six months of grace as referral centres, while farmers will be mobilised to cultivate special grasses to be sold to livestock farmers as feeds.”
