THE Kwara State Police Command on Monday confirmed that at least two supporters of the All Progressives Congress, suffered serious injuries after members of two factions of the party clashed in Ofa, on Sunday.

The command’s Public Relations Officer, Ajayi Okasanmi, who confirmed the incident said, “At about 3: 45pm on Sunday, while on a rally in his ward around Tomade area of Offa, Commissioner of Water Resources, Kwara state, Alhaji Femi Agbaje, and his group, were allegedly attacked by some hoodlums wielding dangerous weapons and two of his men were injured in the fracas.

“The hoodlums have disappeared before the arrival of police men to the scene. The two injured victims were taken to the hospital for treatment.

“The commissioner of Police Kwara state, CP Mohammed Lawal Bagega, has ordered an investigation of the incident. Effort is still in progress to arrest the fleeing hoodlums.”

Our correspondent earlier learnt that the crisis which started about a week ago, was as a result of a supremacy battle between supporters of the State Commissioner for Water Resources, Femi Agbaje and the Senator representing Kwara South Senatorial District, Lola Ashiru.

One person was shot on the head and was left in critical condition during the clash where dangerous weapons were freely used.

The injured party member was said to be receiving treatment at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin

THE Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday expressed fears over Nigeria’s worsening security problems.

The election management body said it was particularly concerned about threats of kidnapping as it prepares for the Continuous Voter Registration ahead of the 2023 general elections.

The commission also vowed to prosecute Nigerians who supply false information during the registration exercise.

Chairman of the INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and Director (Information and Communication Technology), Chidi Nwafor, expressed these views in separate interventions during the second quarterly meeting with Bureau Chiefs of media organisations, in Abuja.

The commission also used the occasion to demonstrate the procedure for the proposed online registration as well as present the new INEC Voter Enrollment Device.

Yakubu said, “We are concerned about the security issues in some parts of the country. The commission would be deploying 5,346 officials to 2,673 registration centers. What happens if any of these staff is abducted?

“Our responsibility is to conduct credible elections and also protect our staff. The security agencies are also facing challenges and there have been concerns that INEC officials might be targets of criminals. What then is the best way to deploy these officials and machines while also ensuring their safety.”

According to him, registration would be carried out continuously for over a year until the third quarter of 2022, adding that the commission was targeting at least 20 million new voters.

He said the commission had also made robust provisions for Internally Displaced Persons who might have misplaced their Permanent Voter Cards due to insecurity.

Yakubu also said, “The success of the exercise depends to a considerable extent on citizens’ awareness through voter education. There will be new registrants, requests for intra-State and inter-State transfers as well as the replacement of voters’ cards as provided by law.”

On his part, Nwafor said INEC would not hesitate to use the nation’s Cybercrime Act 2015, to prosecute those who attempt to undermine the system.

He said[b], “After undertaking the online pre-registration, that person still has to come to our center for facial and biometric capture. At this point, we will be able to fish out underage registrants. And if that person brings people to force our officials to register him or her, there is still a technology that will enable us to fish out the culprit.”[/b]

Okays retracing exercise in non-conflict zones
Not all pastoralists can afford ranching –Agric ministry

In spite of the overwhelming outcry against the plan to retrace and recover grazing routes across the country, the Federal Government is not showing signs of relenting.

Saturday PUNCH findings revealed that stock routes, popularly called grazing routes, are currently being retraced and recovered by the Federal Government for herders to graze their cattle.

The Federal Government said this was meant to address the clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

Although some of the routes are believed to have been encroached upon due to human activities, Saturday PUNCH found out that the government had embarked on a process of identifying monuments along the routes in order to get them back as locations for cattle grazing.

Contrary to the expectations of many Nigerians particularly in South that the grazing routes retracing and eventual recovery might not see the light of day, officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development told one of our correspondents on Friday that the routes’ recovery would go on.

They, however, said it would be done mainly in non-conflict zones.

They also stated that routes that had been encroached upon as a result of the development of public infrastructure might be left out of the recovery exercise.

The acting Director, Animal Husbandry Department, FMARD, Winnie Lai-Solarin, stated that while cattle ranching had been one of the major options canvassed for herders, not every pastoralist would be able to afford ranching at the moment.

She said, “There are some stock routes that we have across the country, and in the past, we had monuments along these stock routes, particularly the primary stock routes.

“And in the course of farming or other human activities along those stock routes, the monuments were altered, but we know where they are. So we are saying that some of them can be retraced.

“And this is particularly for areas that are not encroached upon as of now. The pastoralists know the routes, and on some of those routes, you will see the pieces of the monuments along them.”

Lai-Solarin added, “So for those that are not encroached upon and are not in conflict zones, we will go ahead to retrace and guide the pastoralists along them. We didn’t get to where we are today in one day and so we cannot expect that every pastoralist should suddenly start ranching now.

“Some would still have to move but let’s keep the movement as safe as possible and in areas that are not conflict zones. That is what I am saying. We are not going to retrace stock routes where there are infrastructures that are for the public good.”

Another official at the FMARD familiar with the development stated that the government was not happy with the killings associated with clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

The official, who requested not to be named for lack of authorisation, explained that the stock routes were in three classes.

The source said, “We need to create safe places that are easy for them (herders) to graze their cattle so that they won’t need to travel on the roads. We have primary and secondary stock routes and in some cases, we have tertiary stock routes.”

Providing further explanation on the three classes of routes, the official said, “The primary stock routes are the major routes that run in a North-to-South direction from the Sahel to the coastal market.

“And then, there are some major routes that run inter-state from the North, while others run intra-state.”

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, had announced on Thursday that the Federal Capital Territory and 22 states had registered for the National Livestock Transformation Plan as part of measures to establish grazing reserves in their domains.

He also announced that seven of these states had earmarked 400,000 hectares of land for the initiative, as the establishment of grazing reserves were currently ongoing in Nasarawa, Borno, Niger, Kaduna and some other states.

“Twenty-two states and the Federal Capital Territory have registered with the NLTP office, out of which 10 states have created their own teams which have been trained by the federal office,” Nanono stated.

He explained that seven of the 10 states earmarked about 19 grazing reserves for the implementation of the NLTP, with a total land size of approximately 400,00 hectares.

The NLTP was designed by the Federal Government to address the lingering farmer-herder crisis across the country. The plan was inaugurated by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in 2018 at the Gongoshi Grazing Reserve in Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

The plan was designed to run from 2019 to 2028 as a collaborative project among the federal and state governments, farmers, pastoralists, and private investors.

In February 2021, the Federal Government said it had mapped out 30 grazing reserves across the country for the NLTP implementation.

However, some states, especially in the south, had rejected the idea, saying they had no land to donate to the Federal Government for the initiative. They said any individual who wanted to go into ranching should rather look for land and buy.

But in a new twist, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), during a recent interview with Arise Television, supported open grazing.

He said he had directed the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to produce a gazette which delineated grazing routes in all parts of the country in the First Republic.

The President stated, “What I did was to ask him (Malami) to go and dig the gazette of the First Republic when people were obeying laws.

“There were cattle routes and grazing areas. Cattle routes were for when they (herdsmen) were moving upcountry, north to south or east to west. They had to go through there.”

The President’s statement followed Malami’s recent criticism of Southern governors for banning open grazing, saying their action was like banning the sale of spare parts in the North.

However, several Southern states and institutions like the Nigerian Bar Association and the Pan-Niger Delta Forum have faulted the President on the revival of old grazing routes.

For instance, states including Ondo, Delta, Cross River, Enugu, Benue, Akwa Ibom, and Oyo said there was no existence of a gazette which marked out grazing routes for cattle across the country.

The state governments also insisted on the ban on open grazing despite the President’s opposition to it.

Also, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru, insisted that there was no law on grazing routes in any part of Nigeria.

Rather, the lawmaker said the law on grazing reserves recognised as a state law in the 1999 Constitution actually criminalised open grazing.

The Osun Central Senatorial District Senator, who holds a doctoral degree in property law, gave the clarification in a statement personally signed by him titled, ‘No law of grazing routes in Nigeria: Either North or South.’

He stressed that modern animal husbandry practices remained the panacea to herders/farmers clashes in Nigeria.

Basiru said, “The Grazing Reserves Laws in some states created from the former Northern Region of Nigeria are deemed to be state laws by Section 318 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

“They have been adopted from the Grazing Reserve Law of Northern Region of Nigeria (NN Law of 1965), including CAP 3 Laws of Kwara State, CAP 56 Laws of Bauchi State and CAP 55 Laws of Katsina State.

“On the case of these laws, it was expressly stated that they were adopted from northern Nigeria Laws of 1965. There is no provision for grazing routes as it is being claimed.”

Basiru insisted that there had never been any federal legislation on Grazing Reserves and/or Grazing Routes in Nigeria, and northern region laws were not applicable everywhere in Nigeria. He said by the present constitutional provisions, such law could not be within the competence of the National Assembly.

“However, what is ‘trade route’ was not defined in the law and there is no other reference to the term ‘trade route’ in the law. Under those laws, animals are only allowed to graze in the grazing reserve or ‘trade route,’” the Senate spokesperson added.

Only four states ready for ranching –FG

Meanwhile, of the over 20 states that have assented to the National Livestock Transformation Plan, the Federal Government says only four are ready for the scheme’s take-off. They are Nasarawa, Plateau, Adamawa, and Kaduna states.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture, Dr Andrew Kwasari, said before the end of June, the four states would receive the Federal Government’s counterpart funding of 51 per cent

“We are finalising the processes in the four states that are ready – Nasarawa, Plateau, Adamawa, and Kaduna. So the Federal Government is working on it. I’m sure by the end of the month, they will have it (counterpart funding),” Kwasari told Saturday PUNCH.

He said the states that were ready to implement the NLTP would receive 49 per cent funding from the Federal Government.

He said, “The Federal Government is working to support states and individuals in implementing the NLTP, which was approved by the National Council of Agriculture in conjunction with the National Economic Council. It’s basically to train the pastoralists in the technical skills they need to run ranches. That’s what we’re working on.

“The Federal Government is providing 49 per cent funding, which is about N100bn. The remaining 51 per cent funding is to come from the private sector and development partners.”

Asked if the Federal Government was reaching out to development organisations like the African Development Bank and World Bank to support the NLTP project, Kwasari answered in the affirmative.

“They are all welcome. In Nasarawa State, we have already gotten a grant of €400,000 (N195m) from The Netherlands. The Federal Government is reaching out to multilateral and bilateral partners so that no stone is left unturned to ensure we close the funding gap. Considering the situation of the oil crisis and others, organisations like the World Bank and AfDB are welcome,” he said.

THE Senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Ifeanyi Ubah, has emerged as the governorship candidate of the Young Progressives Party, for the November 6, Anambra election.

Ubah emerged unopposed at a primary election organised by the party in Abuja, on Thursday. He was subsequently cleared by the party leadership to flay the party’s flag.

In his acceptance speech, after the event, Ubah allayed the fears of Nigerians about the crisis in the South-East.

He expressed confidence that the insecurity in the region would not affect the conduct of the polls while assuring party supporters that ‘’the YPP will emerge victorious in the end.’’
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The federal lawmaker accused the Anambra State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party and its All Progressives Grand Alliance counterpart for the crisis in the state.

Ondo, Delta, Cross River, Enugu, Benue and Akwa Ibom state governments on Sunday faulted the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), over the existence of a gazette, which marked out grazing routes for cattle across the country.

Officials of the state governments, who stated this in separate interviews with The PUNCH, also insisted on the ban on open grazing despite the President’s opposition to it.

Recall that Southern governors at their meeting in Asaba, the Delta State capital, last month banned open grazing as part of measures to address killings by herdsmen.

But the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, faulted the governors, saying their action was like banning the sale of spare parts in the North.

Despite criticism Malami’s statement attracted, Buhari, during an interview with Arise Television on Thursday, supported open grazing.

He said he had directed Malami to produce a gazette, which delineated grazing routes in all parts of the country in the First Republic.

The President stated, “What I did was to ask him to go and dig the gazette of the First Republic when people were obeying laws. There were cattle routes and grazing areas. Cattle routes were for when they (herdsmen) were moving up country, north to south or east to west. They had to go through there.”

In his reaction, the Chairman South-South Governors’ Forum and Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, said as of 1963, the state had not been created.

The governor, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Olise Ifeajika, stated, “Yes, Mr President directed the AGF to dig out a gazette of 1963 which marked out cattle routes across the country.

“Delta State has no such law because the 1963 gazette he talked about does not in exist in the state.”

On Buhari’s support for open grazing, Okowa said whether the President backed it or not, the governors in the South had made their position on the ban on open grazing known and nothing would change it. “We stand by our resolutions,” he stated

Show us grazing route in Ondo, if it exists, Akeredolu’s aide tells FG

Also, the Ondo State Government said it was oblivious of the existence of any grazing route in the state, adding that it stood by the southern governors’ ban on open grazing, despite Buhari’s support for it.

The Special Adviser to the state Governor on Agriculture and Agric-business, Mr Akin Olotu, in an interview with The PUNCH, said cattle routes were not known to be existing in the state.

He said, “We don’t know about any grazing routes in this state, and if they have them in their records, let them show us. I think events have taken over such things now. What I mean is that, that time they were talking about what was the population of the country? Now Ikere Ekiti and Ado are almost one. Akure is almost joined with Owo. Akure and Ondo are almost merged .

“So where are the routes? Then the population of the country was about 60 million. What is the population now?, Where are the routes? So like I said , if they show us the routes, then we will know what to do next.”

Similarly, when contacted, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in the state, Mr Charles Titiloye, said he was not aware of any gazette which marked out grazing route in the state.

On open grazing, the state government said it still stood by the decision of the southern governors, which banned it.

The Special Adviser to the state Governor on Security Matters, Alhaji Jimoh Dojumo, who spoke to one of our correspondents, said the state would not allow open grazing of cattle in the state in spite of the pronouncement of the President.

He said, “The Southern Governors’ Forum has spoken at the meeting in Asaba (Delta State). They(the governors) have banned open grazing in the South. They even issued communiqué on the matter. That is where we stand in Ondo State.

“There is no going back on the ban on open grazing, no land would be given for open grazing or grazing routes for cattle in our state.”

On his part, the Cross River State Commissioner for Agriculture, John Okon Owuna, said he was not aware of grazing routes in the state.

“I am not aware if cattle routes exist in the state or a gazette which marks out cattle routes. All I know is that we have the Obudu Cattle Ranch,” the commissioner told The PUNCH.

The Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, also kicked against Buhari’s plan to reactivate old grazing routes in the country.

Ortom, in an interview with journalists, said there was no part of Benue State that was designated as a grazing route.

He stated, “I want people to know that we have a law in place and the law doesn’t breach the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria. I want to believe that our law is a win-win thing to provide security for the farmers and herdsmen against cattle rustling.”

No grazing routes in Enugu, herders shouldn’t encroach on others’ businesses –Commissioner

The Enugu State Government said that it did not have any gazette on cattle routes,

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Matthew Idu, who spoke to one of our correspondents in Enugu, said that cattle rearing was a private business.

He stated, “I have not seen such a document on cattle routes, neither has anybody informed me of any.

“Cattle rearing is an individual business. It is not a government business. So I don’t see why government should be involved in a private business. So it is a private business and those who are doing their private business should look for how they could do their business successfully and efficiently without encroaching on other people’s businesses.”

The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Information and Strategy Mr Ini Ememobong, also told The PUNCH that there were no grazing routes in the state.

Law not a federal law, Buhari lacks powers to implement it – Senator

Senator representing the Osun Central Senatorial District, Dr Ajibola Basiru, in an interview with one of our correspondents on Sunday, said the President lacked legal and constitutional powers to revive the old grazing routes, anywhere in the country.

Basiru, who holds a doctoral degree in Property Law, spoke to one of our correspondents in his capacity as the Senator representing the Osun Central Senatorial District.

Although, Basiru is the Spokesperson for the Senate, the Senator said he could not speak in that official capacity because the upper chamber had yet to take a position on the matter.

The lawmaker said he spoke as a Nigerian who is knowledgeable in the area of constitutional law.

Basiru clarified that the issue of grazing routes was not known to the Nigerian constitution and that Buhari did not have any power to direct the implementation of any law that was alien to the country’s legal books.

He explained that the gazette that Buhari was referring to was a product of a decree promulgated in the northern Nigeria in the 1960s.

He argued that the Land Use Act, which is recognised by the Nigerian constitution, had rubbished the so-called grazing routes gazette.

The Senate spokesperson specifically stated that the Land Use Act had transferred to state governments, the sole power to legislate on use of land for any purpose, including grazing.

Basiru said it was only governors of the northern part of the country that could individually make laws to identify grazing routes because the gazette, which Buhari referred to, had become obsolete.

He said, “Nigerians do not need to criticise the President for making that statement, rather, they should find out whether the President had actually been properly advised by his Attorney General and the legal team.

“Nigerians should be concerned over whether the Nigerian President is actually getting the correct legal advice from his Attorney General and the legal team.

“As far as I am concerned, as a legal practitioner, there is nothing like grazing routes or grazing reserve law, in the laws of the Federation of Nigeria. There is nothing like that.

“There is no federal legislation that the President can implement over such matter.

“The executive powers of the President merely rely on the powers of the National Assembly to make laws, when you look at Section 5 of the Constitution.

“Any area where the National Assembly cannot make laws, and there is no express grants of powers to the President under the Constitution, a purported exercise of power by the President in that regard, will be null and void because it is inconsistent with the Constitution by Section 1(3) of the 1999 Constitution.

“I have painstakingly looked at the laws of the Federation of Nigeria and I did not see a copy of any law that is called federal grazing law, or grazing Act or any other title relating to the issue.

“I am aware that there is a northern Nigerian law on reserve and grazing routes which was promulgated by a 1964 decree by the premier of the defunct northern Nigeria region.

“It is not a federal law unless the legal adviser to Mr President is equating a northern Nigeria law, which is not applicable in the West, Mid-West, and Eastern region or in anywhere in the southern part of Nigeria, to be a federal or a Nigerian law.

“The President does not have the power to implement that law because it is not a federal law.

“He can only implement federal legislation made by the National Assembly or deemed to have been made by the National Assembly.

“The grazing routes law is not a National Assembly law, so there is nothing for the President to implement.

“It is regrettable that the President has not been properly advised by his Attorney General and the legal team.

“If anybody will implement any law, it is the states where those routes are applicable that could do so.

“Grazing routes law is not applicable in any state in the southern Nigeria.The southern Nigeria has its own law on cattle.

“It is unfortunate when we have a situation whereby the President of Nigeria is being misadvised by his legal and policy team, for whatever reason it is.

“There has been informed legal opinion on this issue. So there is no federal law regarding grazing routes.

“Even by the allocation of power, under the Nigerian legislation, the National Assembly and by virtue of that, the President does not have power to do anything about grazing routes.

“This is because the management of land in the entire territory of a state, by Section one of the Land Use Act, is vested in the governor.”

Popular comedian Debo Adebayo, also known as Mr Macaroni, has joined protesters at the Gani Fawehinmi Park in the Ojota area, the venue of the June 12 protest in Lagos State, The PUNCH reports.

The protesters had earlier been dispersed by the police who fired tear gas canisters at them and also fired gunshots in the air.

They, however, converged again in front of a motor park approved by the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation with placards, chanting “Buhari must go” and demanding good governance and end to insecurity in the country.

Addressing journalists, Mr Macaroni wondered why the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), who contested presidential elections at least four times before he got to power, is the same person causing pains to Nigerians.

In February 2021, Mr Macaroni was arrested for protesting at the Lekki toll gate where he demanded that justice be served to the victims of the October 20 2020 #EndSARS protest at the toll plaza.