Oke-Ogun Livestock Farmers Association has called on the Oyo State chapter of Miyetti Allah to urgently withdraw their legal suit against the State government over the signing of the State’s Anti-grazing bill into law.
Oyo State has recently signed the bill to law after the State’s House of Assembly passed the bill which opposed open grazing by herders, due to incessant clashes between farmers and cattle herders and loss of lives and farm products.
The bill has made it illegal for herders to graze on farmlands but sought the need for them to secure lands where cattle could be fed and bred without the herd entering farms to destroy crops.
Rasaq Ashirudeen, chairman, Oke-Ogun Livestock Farmers Association, said the law was in line with the state’s responsibility to protect its citizens, majority who were farmers.
He said this while paying a courtesy visit to the Sole Administrator of Iseyin South Local Community Development Area (LCDA), Ajibola Raheem in Iseyin over the weekend.
Ashirudeen called on Miyetti Allah to avoid confrontation with the State government with its resolve to approach the court, but rather sit with the government and work on the areas that would affect them in the law.
“We are farmers as well as partners with the cattle herders and owners of livestock, which make people call us ‘Oniso’, we buy from them (Fulani cattle owners) and also plant crops that get destroyed whenever the cows pass through our farms.
“It is imperative that the Miyetti Allah do the needful and immediately withdraw the case they took to court against the State, it is not going to bring about the needed peace, they are Nigerians that can live anywhere in the country but even the constitution of Nigeria does not allow for destruction of others’ property, especially their own means of living.
“We plead with the two parties to reach a truce without either being at the receiving end but Miyetti Allah should firstly withdraw their case from the court so that amicable solutions can be found.
The group, therefore, called on the governor to engage stakeholders’ on the content of the bill and its implications and provide room where adjustments could be made to secure continued survival of the herders in the State.
The farmers hailed the governor for his interest in boosting agricultural revolution through farm settlement programs.
He said the group believed the true empowerment of farmers would foster economic diversity and engender mass employment and financial freedom for the people of the State.
In his words, Ajibola Raheem, the sole administrator, Iseyin South LCDA, Hon. saluted the courage and what he called an uncommon resolve of the group to say the truth for the sake of peaceful coexistence of the Fulani and farmers in Oyo State.
He assured the group that the State government was ever ready to accommodate all tribes and nationalities and was willing to do all require for them to thrive in their businesses.
REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan
