Fulani socio-cultural group, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has said that herders will continue to graze their cattle in Southern Nigeria despite the September deadline given by Southern governors to begin the implementation of the anti-open grazing law in the region.
The group, which described the anti-open grazing law of the Southern governors as “satanic,” also proclaimed that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, was originally designed to be a grazing reserve before it was turned into the nation’s capital city.
In a report by Tribune, the Secretary General of the group, Alhaji Alhassan Saleh, said in spite of the Southern governors’ push to outlaw open grazing in the region, the Fulani herders would not leave but would continue to graze their cattle there “peacefully.”
He described the anti-open grazing law being enforced in the region and in Benue State as satanic.
Asked if he would ask the herders to comply with the law, Saleh said, “How will they (herders) comply? Are they going to pack their animals into a shop? Or are they (the Southern governors) going to force them out of their areas? How will they comply if the states cannot create ranches? Ranching is not like opening a shop.”
He said he would advise the herders in the affected states to continue to graze their cattle insofar as they are doing so in the bush and not in the centres of cities or towns.
Asked for his view on the practice of some herders allowing their cattle to stray into the main parts of cities like Abuja, Saleh explained that Abuja was a grazing reserve before it assumed the status of the nation’s capital.
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