Lawmakers under the aegis of Southern Senators Forum (SSF) has backed the decision Governors to uphold the anti-open grazing law in the southern region.
Grassroots.ng reported earlier that Governors from the southern region had met in Asaba, Delta state capital, on Tuesday where issues of cattle rearing were discussed amongst other things.
In a statement on Wednesday, Opeyemi Bamidele and Matthew Urhoghide, chairman and secretary of the forum, said the ban will reduce killings, destruction of property and kidnappings.
They said farmers in the south are losing millions of naira owing to the ravaging of food crops through encroachments by herders, adding that this is exposing the region to famine and acute food scarcity.
“At this critical point of our national life when the economy was being bedeviled by galloping inflation, youth unemployment and insecurity, food security is very crucial to mitigate the effects of these diverse evils on the citizens,” the senators said in a statement.
“Available records have shown that attaining food security status would remain a mirage in the south owing to the ravaging effect of outdated livestock grazing policy being unleashed on farmlands by some unscrupulous herders.
“Most appalling were the seemingly unabated kidnapping , raping and killing of our people by suspected herdsmen, who have become bandits heating up the system.
“With this uniform resolve by our governors to initiate no-open grazing policy, the region will return to its peaceful and agriculturally self -sufficient status it had assumed even long before Nigeria’s amalgamation in 1914.”