Magnus Eze, Enugu
Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) has said the proposed regional security arrangement for the South East, as announced by the governors of the region, will not be effective without enactment of anti-open grazing laws by the states.
ADF, however, applauded the South East governors’ forum for jettisoning the community policing model as prescribed by the Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Adamu.
Chairman of ADF Media and Publicity Bureau in Enugu, Abia Onyike, in a statement yesterday, said they viewed the governors’ recent decision in dealing with security threats in the region with cautious optimism.
The governors had, at the meeting in Enugu, asked their respective Houses of Assembly to pass bills on special security arrangement for the states; a move the ADF said was better taken together with anti-open grazing bills.
Onyike said: “ADF views the development as a positive development since the governors have eventually come to terms with the collective decision of a galaxy of Igbo leaders who met at Imeobi Ohanaeze on February 9, 2020, where the decision for an integrated security outfit for the zone was adopted.
“ADF would like to advise the governors to equally take up the anti-open grazing bill together with the current effort to provide legislation for the zonal security paraphernalia.
“The governors should work with their lawmakers to make law to prohibit open rearing and grazing of livestock in the zone.
“The law would provide for the establishment of ranches and livestock administration, regulation and control.
“The law would help to stop the excesses and atrocities of Fulani herdsmen in the South East where over 200 villages have been overrun by herdsmen and their cattle, resulting in the killing, raping and kidnapping of indigenous peoples in their ancestral lands,” he said.