By Daniel Tyokua
The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has said grazing and stray animals on Abuja streets would no longer be tolerated.
This development followed the increasing illegal grazing and stray animals on the roads, which motivated the board to commence enforcement against the activities in order to mitigate myriad of physical and health challenges caused by the menace.
In particular, AEPB enforcement team accompanied by a joint team of security personnel last week entered streets and arrested some animals mainly cows caught roaming and grazing on the ever busy Nnamdi Azikewi Airport road in Abuja.
During the exercise, the team came under attack from those rearing the animals, who resorted to throwing stones and barricading the busy road, in a failed attempt to recover their seized animals, but the security personnel dispersed them with tear-gas canisters.
Explaining the development, the Director AEPB, Engr Osilama Briamah, who noted that it is a clear signal that the menace is no longer acceptable in the FCT, reiterated that the laws against grazing of animals in the FCT is quite clear.
He noted that the extant law is that people are not allowed to keep animals in their residential property, or graze animals on the streets of Abuja especially on the Airport road or any of such places within the nation’s capital.
Briamah who decried that animals crossing highways and other streets have been involved in car accidents, caused death of people who ram into them, said seized animals will be taken to the Mobile Court for further action.
“These are clearly illegal acts, and we cannot, and we will not have animals crisscrossing the expressways, and we will not certainly allow people to keep animals on their properties, because they also carry diseases that are passed to humans. So apart from constituting physical environmental nuisance, they also constitute public health hazards, this is precisely why we have city planning, for you to keep your animals in certain areas, and live in certain areas. No conflict about this.
“We have always tried to enforce the law, but it is getting more serious now, because if you live in Abuja, you see animal grazing everywhere; cows everywhere. This is no longer acceptable, and we are going to begin strict enforcement. We are going to seize these animals (those roaming the streets) and we will take the violators to court in the next couple of days”.
