Open grazing: Benue govt arrests 400 herdsmen

No fewer than 400 Fulani herdsmen have been arrested on the orders of the Benue State Government for allegedly flouting the promulgated open grazing law of the state. The state’s Governor, Mr. Samuel Ortom, who disclosed this to journalists in Makurdi also said government had procured assorted equipment to help tackle the invasion of the state by militant herdsmen.

He said: “We have arrested over 400 herdsmen for flouting the open grazing law and if I am talking about herdsmen, I am not just talking about Fulani herdsmen, I am talking about indigenous people with herds including Idoma, Tiv, Igede or Igbo’s. “Anybody who trespasses on the law will be arrested, so the law is not discriminating against anyone.
Let me also inform you that we have procured more equipment and vehicles, we are going to use them to arrest herdsmen with cattle that trespass on our land.” Ortom insisted that the law prohibiting open grazing remains sacrosanct and no amount of pressure on him would force him to repeal it. “There is no amount of pressure on me that will repeal that law. In the first place, I have no power to repeal that law enacted by Benue people. “So, if you want to put pressure on me, go to Benue people and talk to them. It is only Benue people that can talk to me and I can listen.”

(Credit: New Telegraph)