By Sodiq Oyeleke

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has signed the bill prohibiting open cattle grazing in the state into law.

Sanwo-Olu, who assented to the bill during the State’s Executive Council meeting in Alausa on Monday, directed the security agencies to swing immediately into action and enforce provisions of the law. He said that by implication, it is now criminal in Lagos for cattle rearers to occupy unapproved public areas and private land with their livestock for grazing.

The law also prohibits the act of moving cattle around public places by herders. The signing of the anti-open grazing law by the Governor followed the decision of the Southern Governors’ Forum last August, setting the September deadline to pass the law across Member States.

There have been crises witnessed in some States, resulting from alleged open grazing. Although farmer-herder crisis is not pronounced in Lagos, the anti-open grazing law is expected to prevent the spillover of the menace into the State.

He said, “By the powers vested in me as the Governor of Lagos State, I am signing the bill on Open Cattle Grazing and Trespass of Cattle on Land into law to prohibit issues associated with open grazing of livestock.”

The PUNCH had reported that the Lagos State House of Assembly on Thursday, September 9, 2021, passed the bill entitled, “A bill for a law to Prohibit Open Cattle Grazing In Lagos State, the Trespass of Cattle Land And For Other Connected Purposes”.

Speaker Mudashiru Obasa subsequently directed the Acting Clerk of the House, Mr. Olalekan Onafeko, to transmit a clean copy to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for assent.

The bill was passed after unanimous votes by the lawmakers at the sitting where the bill was read the third time.

Originally published at Punch