Ban on open grazing will return peace to region, says Southern senators

THE Southern Sena­tors’ Forum has backed steps taken by state governors from the region to stem the rise in insecurity.

The forum made this known in a joint press statement yesterday by its Chair­man, Secretary General, and Publicity Secretary, Senators Opeyemi Bamidele (APC-Ek­iti), Matthew Uroghide (PDP-Edo) and Chukwuka Utazi (PDP-Enugu).

According to the lawmakers, the gov­ernors’ position on open grazing would check those hiding under cat­tle grazing to unleash the terror of kidnapping and killing on the residents of the region.

Recall that the governors at a meeting in Asaba, on Tuesday, unani­mously passed a verdict pro­hibiting open grazing in the region among other positions.

The senators said the step would help secure the region and return it to the path of peace.

They lamented how farmers in the region were losing millions of naira to the plundering of food crops through encroachments on farmlands thereby exposing the region to famine and acute food scarcity.

“At this critical point of our national life when the economy is being bedevilled by galloping inflation, youth unemployment and insecuri­ty, food security is very crucial to mitigate the effects of these diverse evils on the citizens.

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records have shown that attaining food se­curity status would remain a mirage in the South owing to ravaging effect of outdated livestock grazing policy being unleashed on farmlands by some unscrupulous herders.

“Most appalling is 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,” they said.