Herdsmen attacks: Reps urge security to criminalise open grazing in Delta state
Ene Ikpa
Worried by incessant acts of killing, banditry and crop destruction, the House of Representatives yesterday urged security agencies to enforce criminalisation of open grazing in Ethiope east/west federal constituency of Delta state except where laws have been enacted to promote open grazing.
The decision followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Hon. Ben Rollands Igbakpa (PDP, Delta) on the continuous killings and destruction in Ethiope east/west federal constituency of Delta state.
The House also urged the federal ministries of agriculture and information and national orientation to advocate the need for herdsmen to understand that ranching should be a compulsory component of cattle herding in Nigeria in the interest of peace with host communities.
Similarly, the House called on the federal ministries to enlighten herdsmen to endeavour to limit grazing where allowed to bushes and uncultivated lands and not cultivates blooming crops.
Leading debate on the motion, Igbakpa noted that between 2014 and 2018, a total of 36 persons were killed including our lecturers of Delta State University, Abraka in their own farms by herdsmen in Ethiope east local government area of Delta state.
According to him, “in 2019, a total of eight persons have been gruesomely murdered for daring to insist that the herdsmen should not graze on their farms of which, not a single prosecution of the culprits to serve as a deterrent have been recorded”
The lawmaker further noted that on Saturday, July 12, 2019, the entire Ethiope east local government area woke up into mourning and grief as their farm lands of over 100 hectares being cultivates with cassava, yam, maize and plantain “was brought down to ruins by these dare devil herdsmen bearing arms and threatening to deal with anybody who come around to challenge them, with a claim that they own Abuja even as they operate in Delta state’
He further informed that ” Over village in Delta and Ewosi village, a border town to Edo and Delta have been forcefully abandoned by the communities to herdsmen for fear of their lives and destruction of crops”
According to him, the continued nomadic activities into the communities of Abraka, Eku and environs for grazing are a total call for anarchy, which cannot be tolerated.
The lawmaker observed that the activities of the herdsmen have continued to cause panic, palpable fear and tension on the people who are now afraid to go to the farms in search of their daily bread and sustenance, “will no doubt lead to hunger, poverty. Malnutrition and ultimately refugees in their own ancestral land”
He said if this trend s not checked, the source of the livelihood of the people of Ethiope federal constituency particularly Abraka, Eku, Oghara, Jesse and Mosogar communities would be exterminated.
In adopting the motion, the House urged security agencies to convene a meeting between stakeholders in the federal constituency and leaders of herdsmen operating in the area.
The motion was unanimously endorsed by members at the plenary.
