The Pan-Yoruba Socio-political group, Afenifere yesterday rejected the grazing commission bill presently being debated at the National Assembly, describing it as offensive.
It therefore called on the National Assembly to “throw out the bill which is bound to generate unnecessary crises across the country.”
The National Chairman of the group Chief Reuben Fasoranti in a statement issued in Akure, said that the bill would rob a set of citizens of their possessions and award to another set of citizen.
“We stand with the decision of the 2014 national conference which recommended the scrapping of grazing route for the establishment of ranches.
“Our attention has been drawn to a vexatious, obnoxious and provocative bill entitled “An act provided for the establishment and development commission for the preservation and control of national grazing reserves and stock routes and other matter connected therein.”
In the same vein, Igbo socio-political group, Igboekulie, has cautioned the National Assembly against passing the National Grazing Reserves Bill, noting that if passed, it would create the conditions for tension and ethnic violence across the country.
It particularly noted that should the bill become law, the country’s unity would be threatened, given what it described as the inherent flaws of the proposed law and attitude of Fulani herdsmen.
Briefing newsmen in Lagos, the group said land is not abundant in the South, especially the South-East geo-political zone, adding that the Federal Government has no business planting and maintaining grass for herdsmen.
His words: “Though the bill had been proposed in the past and was thrown out for good reasons, there is an attempt to resurrect the bill and rush it through the legislative process.
“There is an element of compulsory acquisition power granted to the commission once ‘it appears’ to it that the land is good for grazing for the use of the herdsmen for whose benefit the grazing reserves are to be created. This is unacceptable. Otherwise, we should expect violent resistance across Nigeria.”
