Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose said any herdsman caught grazing with arms or any weapon in Ekiti would be charged with terrorism.
This followed the signing into law, the anti-grazing bill, recently passed by the House of Assembly, which was read to the congregation of traditional chiefs and rulers in Ekiti by Speaker Kolawole Oluwawole, yesterday.
The chiefs had been invited by the governor for a meeting at the Government House in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
According to Oluwawole, the state government was working with council officials to allocate land for grazing to all local government authorities in the state.
He also gave the highlights of the anti-grazing law as: “Grazing activities must be from 700am to 6.00pm on daily basis; The government shall allot certain portion of land to each local government for grazing;
“Anyone caught grazing on portions of land or any farmland not allotted by government shall be apprehended and made to face the law; Any herdsman caught with firearms or any weapon whatsoever during grazing shall be charged with terrorism; Any cattle confiscated shall be taken to government cattle ranch at Erifun in Iworoko community.
“Agricultural officer shall estimate any farm products destroyed by the activities of any caught herdsman and the expenses of the estimate shall be borne by the culprit. Any herdsman who violates any of these rules shall be imprisoned for six months without option of fine.”
Governor Fayose, who signed the bill into law before the traditional chiefs and rulers, said the purpose of the meeting was to interface with the traditional chiefs on security issues, development of the state and anti-grazing law.
Fayose said he recognised the need for his government to work with the chiefs to give valuable information on activities of those plundering the state resources such as trees and farmlands.
“My government took the bill to the House after what happened in Oke-Ako some months ago. The House has passed the bill and I have to assent it, it becomes a law from today that if you do anything to the contrary, you will be punished. Any herdsman caught with firearms or any weapon while grazing in Ekiti will be charged with terrorism.
“I solicit your support for this administration to succeed. This is not about party politics and Ekiti should be our primary concern. I will continue to call you for this kind of meeting every three months to give accounts of governance,” the governor said.
“We want to involve stakeholders in the preparation of the budget, a bottom up approach, we want to maintain the lead of being ranked first as performing best in budget implementation as we did last year.”
The governor also gave room for an interactive session with the chiefs who used they opportunity to air their views.
The forum also gave room for the government to present achievements of the Fayose’s administration to the chiefs and also presented a run down of the federal allocation that came to the state treasury since last year, with an indication that the state was having developmental challenges due to the continuous reduction in allocation coming from the Federal Government.
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