At a public hearing organised by the Edo Assembly to hear the view of the public on the bill tagged Control of Nomadic Cattle Rearing/Grazing, state governor, Godwin Obaseki, said he was not aware of the bill as it did not emanate from him, but found out from the media.
The governor, who was represented by the Solicitor General, Ministry of Justice, Mr Wole Iyamu, said the first knowledge that the executive had about the bill was when it was reported in the press and the negative reactions that trailed it.
He said, “It must therefore be made very clear that the government house and the executive have absolutely nothing to do with this bill in its current form.
“First of all, from the title of the bill, nothing is wrong with the bill because as they say, it is a bill to establish and control nomadic cattle rearing/grazing and other purposes connected therewith.
“They say a desperate situation requires a desperate solution. That is how we have got to this point but however, this bill, with every due respect to the originators, does not begin to address the problem.
The governor said the bill which has 22 sections failed to define some major fundamental questions like what is nomadic, ranch and grazing, nomadic offenders and others, noting that all these unanswered questions ran through all the portions of the bill thereby making the whole process confusing.
He said the core problem of the bill was where it made mention of designated areas for grazing, noting that land was fundamental to the people and when such an issue is said to be discussed, one needs to be very careful with it.
He said government owns land in trust for the people of the state and when there is a plan to cede land to an individual or group, the government puts the interest of the general public into consideration and that it cannot go against the interest of the general public.
On the part of the President, Christian Association of Nigeria, Edo State chapter, Bishop Oyenude Kure, said the bill was anti-people as its passage into law portends a great danger to the peaceful people of the state, so it should be dead on arrival.
In his personal opinion, the Esogban of Benin Kingdom, Chief David Edebiri, who represented the Oba of Benin monarch, Oba Ewuare II, cautioned that drafters of the bill should be mindful of what they were doing, adding that the bill could leave the Benin Palace with a litany of land dispute to settle.
Chairman of the Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Barrister Asenoguan Ede, also opposed the bill, remarking that the Sambisa Forest was large enough to encourage cattle grazing.
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