Taraba anti-open grazing law has come to stay – Governor Ishaku

As the long anticipated date for the implementation of the Anti-Open Grazing law in Taraba State arrives, Governor Darius Ishaku has reiterated that the law has come to stay and nothing would stop its full implementation.

Speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Bala Dan Abu, Governor Ishaku stated that the law would now be implemented more gradually to make room for the herdsmen to get more used to the idea and familiar with the working of the system while the government also tries to put in place the necessary infrastructure.



The governor said the decision to now implement the law in phases was because the “government has human face and would not want to disrupt peoples way of life and businesses so suddenly”.

He said the government has organised workshops for major stakeholders in the 16 local government areas of the state that beginning from Thursday, in Jalingo, and subsequently the other areas while the training of the Special Marshall would also commence soon.

The governor who held a meeting with traditional rulers in the state, on Monday, to discuss the implementation of the law, disclosed that the government has already identified sites for the pilot ranches across the three zones of the state and work would commence for the construction of the ranches soon.

Meanwhile, the Dandalin Makiyaya Cattle Breeders of Nigeria (DMCBN) has warned that its members would resist attempt by any government task force to arrest their animals for grazing openly.

The state chairman of the group, Alhaji Umar Bello, who gave the warning, in Jalingo, on Wednesday, said the leadership of the association was ‘seriously concerned’ that if the law was implementation under the present circumstances, more than 70 per cent of the cattle in the state would be prone to arrest as members have not been able to ranch their cattle due to lack of infrastructure.

He said that the tendency for its members to resist arrest of their cattle by the task force set up by the governor is very high as the leadership may not be able to completely restrain its members and compel compliance with the law and this could possibly lead to chaos I the state.

The decision of the state governor to give the law a softer take off has doused the tension and apprehension that was mounting as the date for the implementation of the law drew closer.