Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, and leaders of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria have met in Ado Ekiti to sort out differences over the new law restricting cattle grazing in the state.
On the demand by the MACBAN leaders that they be part of the patrol teams to enforce the law, the governor acceded and commended their effort to support his administration in getting rid of bad eggs among the cattle breeders.
Fayose had on August 29 signed a grazing law entitled, “Prohibition of Cattle and Other Ruminants Grazing in Ekiti, 2016.”
Under the law, anyone found violating the bill, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to six months in prison without an option of a fine.
The law also provides that any farm products destroyed by the activities of any caught herdsman shall be estimated by agricultural officers and the expenses of the estimate shall be borne by the culprit.
Despite threats from MACBAN, who threatened to wage war against the state, the governor had inaugurated the Ekiti Grazing Enforcement Marshals with a warning that any cattle found grazing after 6pm would be confiscated by the state government.
The governor at the meeting held at the Government House in Ado Ekiti, agreed to bring in members of MACBAN as part of the grazing marshals to enforce the grazing law.
He expressed happiness that the leaders of MACBAN decided to meet the State Government instead of listening to rumours being peddled around by the opposition.
Fayose said, “I have nothing against you or any other ethnic group. Nobody should bring politics into this matter. If a Yoruba person destroys your property, I will defend you too.
“Leaders are not supposed to discriminate and as a leader, I don’t discriminate. The law of the land is not against anybody who obeys it but those who flout it. It is people destroying other people’s farms that are causing this problem.
“We have given lands to people to farm and they have paid; some for many years to use the lands and somebody now comes and destroys their means of livelihood and make them suffer losses, we won’t allow that. It is the bad people that make others suffer. If anybody says Fayose is after Hausa or Fulani people, that person has no sense.”
Fayose recalled that during his first term, he appointed a man from Malunfashi as a Special Adviser while he had this time appointed one Musa Kanga into the Pilgrims Welfare Board.
On the claim that marshals appointed to enforce the Anti-Grazing Law were shooting cows, the governor said it was untrue, adding that the marshals were not armed.
Fayose also said a meeting of community leaders, government officials, MACBAN members and security agents would hold later in the week for further deliberations.
The MACBAN Chairman in Ekiti, Alhaji Muhammad Nasamu, commended the governor for his frankness and openness.
He noted that the meeting had disabused the minds of his members about wrong information being circulated by some people about the governor and the state government.
The MACBAN Secretary in Ekiti, Alhaji Zaiyanu Mohammed, said his members were also not in support of cows destroying people’s means of livelihood.
He added that by being part of the patrol teams, his members would be able to detect herdsmen with ulterior motives.
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