From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Chairman, Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) and governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, yesterday disclosed that the northern governors actually banned open grazing by Fulani herdsmen before the southern governors followed suit.
Lalong said the northern governors were busy seeking alternative to the grazing hence they did not give it much publicity, pointing out that those who said northern governors did nothing about open grazing were wrong.
In a message he sent through the Secretary to the State Government, Professor Danladi Atu, at this year’s annual Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Lecture, the governor said: “Contrary to some mischief and insinuations arising from the resolutions by the Southern Governors Forum that the northern governors have not done anything about the issue of open grazing, we are actually the first region to take a collective decision that the practice of open grazing is no longer sustainable.
“Perhaps (it was) because we have been so busy working on alternatives before the final implementation that some people who would rather play to the gallery are trying to disparage us.”