*Raises fine for stray animals from N2,000 to N50,000
By Myke Uzendu
The Benue State Government, has upped the ante in a bid to further curtail and eliminate the ravaging attacks of herdsmen on communities, known by the federal government as herders/farmers clashes, which the state held responsible for the killing field in recent years.
Governor Samuel Ortom gave approval to the decision by announcing an increase of the fine for impounded animals from N2,000 to N50,000.
Under the new law, additional N20,000 daily quarantine fee in the amended Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law of 2022 has been imposed.
Signing the amended bill into law, Ortom said that would give teeth to the new provisions.
The governor emphasised at the occasion that failure to claim such animals after seven days of its impounding empowers the state Ministry of Agriculture to auction such animals, in line with the amended law.
He added that while other portions of the law remained as they were, another amended area covered the seven days period of grace during which the confiscated livestock must be claimed by their owners or risk being unctioned.
“If the owners don’t come to collect same day of confiscation, they will have to pay additional N20,000 for each cow.
“If you don’t pay within seven days, the law permits us to auction it.
“The House of Assembly has approved that for every cow arrested by our Livestock Guard, the owners should pay the sum of N50,000, instead of the meagre N2,000.
“For every cow that is arrested and kept in the Quarantine Centre, if you are found wanting, other provisions of the law as enacted in 2017 still stands.”
The Benue State Government is the first to enact a law prohibiting open grazing in 2017.
Several other states have since followed suit with their versions of the law, but these are hardly implemented due to uncooperative attitude of the Police and other security and federal agencies.
Itinerant herdsmen style of livestock rearing in the country have been the primary and key sources of friction between them and farmers as their animals stray into farms, often deliberately, leading to killing of human beings and attendant loses.
