How community members encourage farmers/herders clash: Obaseki

By Jethro Ibileke/Benin

The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has accused some members of the various communities of aiding and abetting farmers/herders clash.

Obaseki said some members of the various communities aid and abet farmers/herders clash by secretly collecting money from Fulani cattle herdsmen.

Obaseki said this while addressing journalists on Tuesday in Benin 63on why governors of the southern states of the country collectively decided to enforce the ban on open grazing.

He noted that the development often times cause confrontation between farm owners and the herders.

According to him, “When these herders come into these communities, people collect money from them and ask them to go and graze, without telling them where they should go and graze and these herders go into other people’s farms.

“When the farmers confront them, they will say they have paid, wondering why the people are confronting them.”

The governor noted that the decision to ban open grazing will help make a distinction between banditry and the business of cattle-herding and to restrict the movement of herders.

He added that the ban will prevent clashes between farmers and herders, as well as, assisting the government in checking the activities of bandits.

He said: “We have seen that banditry has been associated with the herding of cattle, but we also have the challenge that we need our protein sufficiency.

“Many people invest in the business and get some of the northern folks who help in herding the cattle.

“What we said in that meeting is that we don’t want to see you patrolling. If you want to do herding business, do it within a location.

“The challenge has been, which I have said from day one, cattle herding is a business like poultry, piggery or any other business.

“If you want to herd cattle, create an area, grow the feedstock, the grasses, and restrict the cattle to the area and let the cattle feed there and fatten and take them to be slaughtered.”