Our law not contravene Nigeria constitution ―Benue Attorney General

BENUE State Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Mr Michael Gusa has stated that the anti-grazing law enacted in the state which took effect last Wednesday has not contravened the constitution but only meant to restrain movement of livestock.

Gusa who spoke to our correspondent in Makurdi on Tuesday on the heels of outcry that trailed the new law said those who were attacking the law are not from the state.

He said that the law was not meant to drive away herdsmen from the state has been peddled in some quarters, stressing that no indigenous herdsmen have left the state.

“The Miyeitti Allah splinter group, Kauta Hore started the rumour that the law was meant to drive herdsmen away from Benue state but by the time we published the law and people saw it they discovered it was tissues of lie”.

“When they discovered that they lost in that area, they started spreading rumour that herdsmen have begun leaving the state, but I tell you that no fulani herdsmen born here have left the state”.

“In fact, the herdsmen are very happy and they have embraced the law because they realized that the law is to protect them and the natives”.

Gusa addled that, ‘the law does not tamper with the constitutional right of any person but rather the law only restrains movement of livestock.’

“What we are saying in effect is that if you want to convey your livestock from one place to another in Benue state is that you must carry them by truck so that they do not tamper with the property of others”.

He explained that the state had already created six pilot ranches across the state where violators’ livestock would be kept, adding that the implementation of the law would have a human face, hence, and gradual process in the implementation of the law.