TheCable

Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, says he will soon submit the bill to ban open grazing in the state to the house of assembly.

Speaking on Wednesday at the inauguration of a road in Obio-Akpor LGA, the governor said the bill is in tune with the resolution made by the southern governors forum.

In May, governors of the 17 southern states had met in Asaba, Delta state capital, to discuss the state of the nation.

After the meeting, the governors called on President Muhammadu Buhari to be fairer in political appointments, convene a national dialogue, embrace the calls for restructuring, and ban open grazing.

“You can’t go to the farm anymore. Those who rear cattle, they’ll not allow your crops to grow. Let me say clearly. Now that the house of assembly has come back, we have to submit the bill on anti-open grazing as we agreed in the Southern Governors Forum,” Wike said.

“So that everybody must understand it, it’s clear, without any hesitation. We must do it to protect our farms, to protect our women, to protect our youths, so that nobody will go and kill them.

“Since APC came into power, you can now see what Nigeria has turned to. Each day you wake up, you hear people are being killed. If you watch television and read the newspapers, you will hear so and so number are killed or kidnapped in so and so state.

“That is not what I thought all of us needed. The country is on oxygen (life support). Nobody knows what will happen next. As we are today, Nigeria is in dire need of help. Nigeria needs prayers; to our mothers and sisters, you must kneel down and pray to God to salvage this country.”

Wike added that the ban will be given legal backing to protect Rivers people from “marauding herdsmen”.