Enugu Assembly Passes Public Ranching Bill

Enugu State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, passed the Pubic Ranch Management Agency bill.

The bill authorises the government to set up an agency to manage both government and private owned ranches in the state.

Speaking before the passage of the bill, the member representing Igbo-Eze North Constituency II, Mr. Clifford Obe, argued that the legislation would end the farmer/ herders crisis in the state.

Obe said the farmers/herders crisis was responsible for the low agricultural output in the market.

According to him, many farmers have been driven out of their farms, which had resulted in the increase of crimes and rural/urban migration

“The bill will help people not to be afraid. It will make it must for herders to register whenever they enter into any community.

“It will reduce crime and how cattle messes up our city and rural communities because there would be an agency on ground to guide the herders.

“Above all, the state government would able to collect tax from the herders, who before now don’t any tax”, Obe added.

Also contributing, Mr. Okechukwu Aneke, representing Udi South Constituency, noted that there is no need for people to be afraid of the bill, adding that herders are not only Fulani.

Aneke stressed that the herders have come to stay, urging the people to learn how to co-exist with them, as the herders have come to stay.

The lawmaker reiterated that the bill wanted to control the herders, adding that those invading and attacking communities in the state were not real herders.

“This agency, when established, will have a designated area where the cattle and their herders will be stationed.

“Any herder, who is found in our bush and not in the designated place, should be treated as an intruder and a kidnapper”, Aneke said.

Another lawmaker, Mr. Chima Obieze, regretted that people condemning the bill were arguing about what they did not know, saying there was nothing in the bill for people to shout about.

Obieze asked the public not to discourage people from other parts of the country from coming to Enugu to do business.

While stressing that the herders, who are mostly nomadics should come to the state, pointing out however that they must operate in accordance with extant laws.

Mr. Harrison Ogara, while noting that the bill would guarantee peace between farmers and herders, asked the executive arm of the government to be strategic in its implementation.

In his remark, the Speaker, Chief Uche Ugwu, assured that the Assembly would not develop a bill capable of truncating the peace in the state.