Ekiti outlaws open, night grazing as Fayose signs anti-grazing bill

Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has signed into law, a bill prohibiting open grazing in Ekiti State, thereby outlawing open and night grazing among other acts, in the state.

Fayose signed the bill, which was passed into law by the state’s House of Assembly on Thursday, at a ceremony in Ado Ekiti, where he warned those who might break the law.

Among other things, the law prescribes six months jail term for offenders.

The bill was entitled “A Bill for A Law to regulate and Control Cattle and Other Ruminants Grazing in Ekiti State and Other Matters Connected Therewith, 2016.”

The Speaker of the Assembly, Pastor Kola Oluwawole, had presented the bill to the governor at a gathering where traditional rulers, chiefs and community leaders from all the communities in the state were present.

The law provides that cattle rearers should graze their cattle in the morning at places already earmarked for the purpose.

According to Oluwawole, grazing areas had been provided in Iworoko and Erifun and in the various communities in all the 16 local government areas of the state.

Governor Fayose warned that any cattle rearer that flouts the law would be charged and if found guilty, pay the value of whatever is destroyed, after a valuation by the relevant agencies.

Oluwawole had said at the passage of the bill that “it will promote a kind of cordial relationship between the cattle rearers and the people of the state, particularly the farmers.

“It will also put paid to Fulani herdsmen carrying arms and ammunition in the state, stopping the development that has prevented our people from sleeping with their two eyes closed.”