Kidnapping/insecurity: Law against night, underage grazing coming in Ondo

Ondo State governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, on Wednesday adopted a new strategy aimed at tackling kidnapping and other criminal activities allegedly associated with the Myetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria.

He asked members of the association to stop night and underage grazing in all parts of the state.

The governor, therefore, asked the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Kola Olawoye, SAN, to work on the legislation that would back the order stopping the night and underage grazing.

Part of the law, Akeredolu said, would accommodate the issue of compensation of items or farm products destroyed or plundered by either cattle breeders or farmers.

According to the governor, underage are likely not to differentiate between maize plantation and grasses and thus grazing their cattle on the former.

Akeredolu spoke during a meeting with members of the cattle breeders association led by its national chairman, Alhaji Kirowa Mohammadu, at the Governor’s Office in Akure, the state capital.

This is just as the Brigade Commander of 32 Artillery, Akure, Bridgadier General James Ataguba, confirmed the arrest of no fewer than four suspected kidnappers in Owo area of the state.

Ataguba, who was furious at the meeting over the alleged nefarious activities of herdsmen in the state, warned their leaders to either fish the suspects out or face the consequences of their perceived aide and abetting.

“You know the criminal elements among you. So, you are duty bound to fish them out,” he said.

It will be recalled that no fewer than five persons, including a lecturer with the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic , Owo, have been kidnapped recently. The lecturer was also killed by his abductors.

Akeredolu, however, challenged the leaders of the association to assist the security agencies to arrest suspected criminals among them.

He added that the bio-metric data of all herdsmen in the state would be taken for peaceful co-existence and easy identification.

The meeting ended with a committed formed among the leaders of the association to monitor the activities and their members and thus report the suspects among them to the security agencies.