Southern senators back governors’ decision to enforce open grazing ban

The Southern Senators Forum (SSF) has thrown its weight behind the resolve by the governors in the southern region to ban open grazing and the movement of cattle by foot.

The governors of the southern region took the decision after a meeting in Asaba, Delta state capital, on Tuesday.

In a statement on Wednesday, Opeyemi Bamidele and Matthew Urhoghide, chairman and secretary of the forum, said the ban will reduce killings, destruction of property and kidnappings.

They said farmers in the south are losing millions of naira owing to the ravaging of food crops through encroachments by herders, adding that this is exposing the region to famine and acute food scarcity.

“At this critical point of our national life when the economy was being bedeviled by galloping inflation, youth unemployment and insecurity, food security is very crucial to mitigate the effects of these diverse evils on the citizens,” the senators said in a statement.

“Available records have shown that attaining food security status would remain a mirage in the south owing to the ravaging effect of outdated livestock grazing policy being unleashed on farmlands by some unscrupulous herders.

“Most appalling were the seemingly unabated kidnapping , raping and killing of our people by suspected herdsmen, who have become bandits heating up the system.

“With this uniform resolve by our governors to initiate no-open grazing policy, the region will return to its peaceful and agriculturally self -sufficient status it had assumed even long before Nigeria’s amalgamation in 1914.”