Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Monday, October 11, explained why he is yet to send the Anti-Open Grazing Bill to the state House of Assembly and sign it into law as agreed at the Southern Governors meeting.
Speaking at a public hearing on the bill organized by the state government, Obaseki stated that signing the bill into law is easy but it will be senseless to enact unenforceable law.
Urging residents of the state not to play politics with the situation, the Governor also averred that there are security implications because some people have now “joined and are using these herders to perpetuate insecurity.”
He said;
“To sign the law is always easy, but it doesn’t make sense to enact a law that you can’t enforce.
“The best way to enforce a law is to bring everybody that is affected together so that nobody would say this is not what we agreed on and the law can then be enforced.
“As long as we’ve decided that we’ll eat meat and drink milk, we’ll have to sit down and rearrange the business, engaging the people who are producing these foods on how they must organize themselves.
“Let’s not play politics with this issue; let’s deal with it honestly and openly. There are security implications because some people have now joined and are using these herders to perpetuate insecurity.
“My worry is that if we don’t separate them so that we can know those people using cattle herding to perpetrate crime and insecurity in our state, we’ll be missing the point.
“People are doing their legitimate business of herding cattle and producing meat, and there are criminals who want to destabilize our country and state.”