Mansur Dan Ali, minister of
defence, has recommended the suspension of the anti-grazing law.
The law is operational in Benue,
Taraba and Ekiti states where clashes between herdsmen and farmers have led to
the loss of lives.
But speaking at a meeting
President Muhammadu Buhari had with service chiefs at the presidential villa in
Abuja, Dan Ali said the law has caused tension in those states.
“There is need to employ other
channels with the affected states to reduce tension by suspending the
implementation of the anti-open grazing law while also negotiating safe routes
for the herders,” Tukur Gusau, Dan Ali’s spokesman, quoted him as saying in the
meeting.
“The urgent need for the Nigeria
Police and Department of State Services to prosecute all the suspects arrested
in states. The need to hasten the establishment of a National Commission on the
Control of Small Arms and Light weapons in Nigeria.”
Dan Ali also recommmended the
launch of a joint task force operation, similar to Operation SAFE HAVEN in Jos,
with headquarters in Gusau, Zamfara state, to cover Zamfara and Birnin Gwari
axis of Kaduna State, where kidnappings and killings have also been on the
rise.
He said the council considered
the killings and kidnapping in the north-west, particularly along Abuja-Kaduna
expressway, even as the service chiefs reviewed the activities of armed bandits
and other “criminal elements” in Anka, Maru, Kaura Namoda and Atalanta Mafara
in Zamfara.
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders
Association of Nigeria, an umbrella body of herdsmen, has consistently demanded
that the anti-grazing law should be revoked.
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