Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has outlawed night grazing and straying of cows outside the proposed ‘enclosed designated grazing areas’ across the state.
This was highlight from a stakeholers peace meeting held today at Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, which was attended by senior police officers led by the Commissioner of Police (CP), Leye Oyebade; farmers, Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani traditional rulers as well as herdsmen.
Sabiganna of Iganna, Oba Saliu Azeez; Seriki Fulani of Ogbomoso land, Alhaji Umaru Guruma and a herdsman from Orile-Igbon, Alhaji Ahmed Sulaiman; spoke after the meeting and commended the state government's initiative and expressed their preparedness to embrace peace.
Also, Mr. Leye said that the meeting would lay a solid foundation for continued peace across the state and commended Governor Ajimobi for his invaluable support for security agencies in the state.
Meanwhile, the governor disclosed that the enlarged meeting is a follow-up to the previous ones spearheaded by the CP towards fostering harmonious relationship among the herdsmen, farmers and various communities hosting herdsman across the state.
He emphasized that all the stakeholders should know that the country is indivisible and at such the relationship between the Hausa/Fulani and their Yoruba host communities has become so strong to the extent that they now intermarry and speak each other’s dialect fluently.
“In the entire southern part of the country, I can say without equivocation that Oyo people are the most hospitable and accommodating and that is why you find large concentration of Hausa and Fulani and other ethnic groups living and doing business here,” he said.
During the stakeholders’ meeting the governor outlined a plan to alleviate tensions between herdsman and other communities in Oyo State.
Mr. Ajimobi said that "there would be short, medium and long-term solution to the grazing debacle, which would involve creation of grazing routes in the first instance that would progressively lead to creation of 'enclosed designated grazing area' and grazing ranch ultimately.”
Significantly, he said that there would no longer be night grazing or staying of cows at night. Adding that “[future] meetings would agree on the right compensations by herdsmen for farmers whose farmlands are destroyed or crops eaten up by cattle.”
Mr. Ajimobi also said that “I appeal to the communities not to poison farmland and water. You never can tell who would be the victim.”