Open grazing ban: Akeredolu asks Malami to go to court

*Peterside faults Attorney General

Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu has told the Attorney General and Minister of Justice Shehu Malami to go to court if he is not satisfied with the decision of the Southern Governors to ban open grazing in their territories.

Malami had in a statement likened the decision of the governors to ban open grazing as ban sales of spare parts, a decoy reference to a particular section of the country.

Also,  Atedo Peterside, the founder of Stanbic IBTC and Anap Foundation, has said Malami’s linking of the resolution to ban open grazing in the south with right to free movement of persons is “disingenuous”.

He said in a Tweet that freedom of movement does not extend to that of cattle.

Governor Akeredolu’s statement reads: “I have just read the press statement credited to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Shehu Malami SAN on the resolution of the Southern Governors Forum to ban open grazing in their respective States. The AGF is quoted to have said that this reasoned decision, among others, is akin to banning all spare parts dealers in the Northern parts of the country and is unconstitutional.

“It is most unfortunate that the AGF is unable to distil issues as expected of a Senior Advocate. Nothing can be more disconcerting. This outburst should, ordinarily, not elicit response from reasonable people who know the distinction between a legitimate business that is not in anyway injurious and a certain predilection for anarchy. Clinging to an anachronistic model of animal husbandry, which is evidently injurious to harmonious relationship between the herders and the farmers as well as the local populace, is wicked and arrogant.

“Comparing this anachronism, which has led to loss of lives, farmlands and property, and engendered untold hardship on the host communities, with buying and selling of auto parts is not only strange. It, annoyingly, betrays a terrible mindset.

“Mr Malami is advised to approach the court to challenge the legality of the Laws of the respective States baning open grazing and decision of the Southern Governor Forum taken in the interest of their people. We shall be most willing to meet him in Court.

“The decision to ban open grazing stays. It will be enforced with vigour.”

Peterside in his Tweet in response to Malami said, “It is about constitutionality within the context of the freedoms expressed in our constitution. Can you deny the rights of a Nigerian?

“For example: it is as good as saying, perhaps, maybe, the northern governors coming together to say they prohibit spare parts trading in the north. Does it hold water? Does it hold water for a northern governor to come and state expressly that he now prohibits spare parts trading in the north?”

He observed that “It is disingenuous to link a ban on open grazing to the constitutional right to the free movement of persons. The latter does not extend to the free movement of cattle, goats, sheep etc through farms with the attendant destruction of somebody’s harvest.”