The Senate, the House
of Representatives, Taraba, Ekiti and Benue state governments on
Wednesday berated the Minister of Defence, Maj.Gen. Musur Dan-Ali
(retd.), for calling on state governments to
suspend their anti-open
grazing laws, discribing the call as illegal.
While the Senate and the Benue State Government asked
the minister to withdraw his statement, Taraba and Ekiti states rejected the
call by Dan-Ali.
The minister, after a security council meeting at
the Presidential Villa in Abuja
on Tuesday, had said the suspension of the laws would reduce tension.
The anti-open grazing law is currently
operational in Benue, Ekiti and Taraba states.
Dan-Ali, in a statement by his Public Relations
Officer, Col. Tukur Guasu, also called for creation of safe routes for
herdsmen.
But the Senate, at the plenary on Wednesday,
criticised the minister. The upper chamber of the National Assembly asked him
to withdraw his statement.
Raising a point of order, Senator Barnabas Gemade
(Benue North-East) faulted Dan-Ali’s statement and urged the Senate to ask the
minister to withdraw the statement.
He also stated that the states were empowered by
the Land Use Act to take
ownership and management of land resources.
The lawmakers unanimously granted Gemade’s prayer
to “ask the minister of defence to withdraw his statement on his call for the
withdrawal of the anti-open grazing laws in Benue and Taraba as these laws were
properly enacted in accordance with the states’ Houses of Assembly.”
Reacting to Dan-Ali’s statement, Gemade said,
“This is not the first time that we will hear this kind of absurd statement
coming from no less a personality than the minister of defence. If a
minister of defence is calling for anarchy, where else can we find peace?
“We understand that the minister comes from Zamfara State and I
wonder if all the killings in Zamfara that are almost equal in number with the
ones in Benue, are also as a result of the anti-open grazing law. And if by his
own experience, the killings in Zamfara have nothing to do with the anti-open
grazing law, why does he believe that the killings in Benue and Taraba states
are because they enacted the laws?
“These killings have been on for seven years
before the laws came into operation. So, what was responsible for the killings
at that time? And now the killings in Zamfara have not ceased, yet they have
not made a law prohibiting open grazing. “We think that this republic is
probably being misadvised by those who have been given appointments to take
responsibility for the good governance of this nation. Therefore, they must be
cautioned.”
Gemade added, “It was very strange to me that in
the mind of the Minister of Defence of this nation, the only way he can solve
the problem of hundreds and thousands of people being killed in Benue and Taraba
states is that the laws they made against open grazing of cattle – where you
cannot control the conflict between herdsmen and farmers – should be removed,
so that whatever semblance of law to keep law and order should be removed and
anarchy can go on as was the case before.”
In his submission, Senator John Enoh (Cross
River-Central), described Gemade’s arguments as logical.
He said, “If killings had been going on for the
past seven years and the enactment of the anti-open grazing laws by Benue,
Taraba and Ekiti states was just about one year ago, what it means is that
going against the laws will not be the solution to the killings. That means the
anti-open grazing law is not the reason why the killings are taking place in
the states.”
Also, the House of Representatives asked the
National Security Council not to direct states to suspend their
respective anti-open grazing laws.
The House said such a directive would infringe on
the constitutional powers of the states to make laws for the security and
welfare of their citizenry.
It passed the resolution after a member from Benue State, Mr. John
Dyegh, brought up the NSC’ decision under matters of public importance.
Dyegh, a member of the All Progressives Congress, reminded
members that the 1999 Constitution
empowered state Houses of Assembly to make laws for the states.
He cited some laws made by states before the
anti-open grazing laws like the laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol and
prostitution.
The lawmaker noted that it smacked of hypocrisy
to say some laws were acceptable, while others were not.
He added, “The laws against sale of alcohol and
prostitution are there. They are still being implemented as we speak, no matter
how inconvenient they are to the victims.
“Why is the anti-open grazing law an issue? Under
the Land Use Act, land is vested in the hands of the state to hold in trust for
the people. Why is the law against open grazing such an issue to them?”
Rather than asking the states to suspend their
laws, the House called on the Federal Government to submit a supplementary
budget to develop cattle colonies in the 11 states that volunteered land for
the purpose.
The session, which was presided over by the
Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, passed the resolution in a unanimous voice vote.
Your statement is offensive, Ortom tells
minister
Also, the Benue State Governor, Samuel
Ortom, has faulted the minister.
The governor, through the Commissioner of
Information and Orientation, Mr. Lawrence Onoja Jnr. asked the minister to
withdraw the statement.
Ortom, who expressed surprise at the
minister’s statement, noted that his outburst was at variance with the position
of the National Economic Council, presided over by the Vice-President, Prof.
Yemi Osinbanjo, which had endorsed ranching as the best global practice.
The governor stated, “We call on Mansur Dan-Ali
to, as a matter of urgency, withdraw this highly offensive statement against
Benue State and the victims of herdsmen killings in the state.
“Over 500 Benue indigenes have so far lost
their lives to herdsmen invasion of the state since the New Year day.”
The governor said that while the minister
was dissipating his energy on the law, he had yet to call for the arrest and
prosecution of the Miyeiti Allah leaders who had allegedly openly and
consistently threatened more bloodshed in Benue on account of the law.
He said that the state government had acted
within the ambit of the constitution, which empowers states to make laws for
the good governance of the people.
Ortom said that there was no going back on the
implementation of the law as prosecution of offenders was going on smoothly.
“We have no apologies to the Minister of Defence
or anyone,” he said.
Benue Assembly calls for Ali’s
resignation
But the state House of Assembly at its plenary on
Wednesday called for the resignation of the defence minister, describing his
statement as “unfortunate.”
The Majority Leader, Benjamin Adayin, had raised
a motion of public importance condemning the statement of the minister. He
moved a motion for condemning the minister’s statement and passing vote of no
confidence in him.
Members including John Ahubi, Sule Audu and,
Benjamin Mguthyor representing Otukpo/Akpa, Agatu and Tarka constituencies
respectively lambasted the minister.
The resolution of the House, which was read
by the Speaker, Terkimbir Ikyabir, condemned the statement of the
minister.
He said that the House passed a vote of no
confidence in Dan-Ali and asked him to resign his appointment with
immediate effect.
Ali’s demand, affront to federalism, says
Fayose
On his part, the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele
Fayose, said the call by the minister was an affront to federalism practised
in the country.
In his tweeter handle, Fayose wondered why it was
difficult for the Federal Government to support cattle ranching.
Fayose stated, “Call by the Federal
Government through the Minister of Defence, Dan-Ali, that states should
suspend implementation of the anti-grazing law is an affront to federalism that
is practised in Nigeria. It
is amazing that at the level of the Presidency, they still see states as
appendages of the Federal Government.
“January this year, the minister of defence
blamed passage of anti-grazing law in some states as the cause of killings by
herdsmen; today, he
is still singing the same song. Is there something to this old system of
nomadic cattle rearing that they are not telling Nigerians?
“Why is @MBuhari not rearing his cows through
open grazing? Why is it so difficult for the Federal Government to support
cattle ranching? Here in Ekiti, the anti-open grazing law stays. It is the
Presidency that should stop looking the other way while herdsmen go about
killing Nigerians.
“I think the Presidency should be concerned about
how to take the herdsmen out of the bush and give them decent life by embracing
cattle ranching. How can anyone be pleased subjecting his own people to a life
of following cows through the bush from Yobe to Lagos?”
Fayose later issued a statement where he argued
that the Federal Government lacked the power to suspend or abrogate the
anti-grazing laws enacted by the state governments to prohibit open grazing of
cattle in their states.
In the statement signed by his Chief Press
Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, on Wednesday, Fayose hinged his submission on the
fact that “the country is a federation and that Ekiti is one of the federating
units and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is clear on what
each unit can legislate on.
“On this subject, the Federal Government has no
control and cannot interfere. This is a matter of law.
“I want the Federal Government to know that we
are operating a democratic system and that we are not in the military era when the
government is run by decrees and fiats. Those in the Federal Government
contemplating to suspend a law enacted by the state can only be appointed by a
quasi-military government and not a pure civilian government.
“Let them know that the Ekiti State Anti-grazing
Law has come to stay and we have no apology for that. Where were they when our
farmers were being hacked down in various parts of the state?”
We won’t suspend our anti-grazing law –
Taraba gov
Also, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor
of Taraba State on
Media, Mr. Bala Dan Abu, who responded on behalf of Governor Darius Ishaku,
said the state would not suspend the law, adding that the defence minister and
the Federal Government lacked the power to ask a state to dump its law.
He stated, “ I’ve read about his call that
the anti-open grazing laws by state governments should be suspended. I think
his position is a misconception of what the laws by the various state
governments are set out to achieve or maybe he’s just pretending not to
understand the issues relating to killings by herdsmen. Killings have not just
started in the Middle Belt states, in the North and other parts of the
country.
“If the open grazing law is the problem, how does
he want to explain killings in Kaduna, Zamfara
and Kogi states that have no such law? He is pretending, he understands the
issue and that is why we, in Taraba State, are rejecting his call for the
suspension of our anti-open grazing law.
“We will not suspend our law because we are
running a federal system of government and so a state is free to make laws that
will suit its people. Anyway, the suspension of the law is not the solution to
the problem of killings in the country particularly killings carried out by
Fulani herdsmen.
“The solution to the problem rests with the
Federal Government because it has all the mercenaries to deal with the issue.
The Federal Government is in control of all the security apparatus of the
country, the problem is that the security agents are not getting the right
instructions and even when they give them the right instructions, the political will to
do the right thing is not there. So, the defence minister and all his security
chiefs and the police should do the right things and they should not take sides
like they have been doing.”
Minister’s call illegal, says OPC
The Oodua People’s Congress also lambasted the
minister of defence.
The founder of the OPC, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, in
a statement on Wednesday described the call as unconstitutional.
Fasehun described the call as “contradicting
Section 4(7) of the constitution that empowers state Houses of Assembly to make
laws for the good governance in their areas.”
He also hailed the National Assembly for its
fresh attempt to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari.
The OPC founder said Buhari had failed to
understand that free media, legislature and the judiciary remained the
cornerstone of any democracy.
Describing the National Assembly’s resolve as a
bold and patriotic step to curtail dictatorship and executive lawlessness, the
OPC urged Nigerians to support the move.
I only made a suggestion, minister
insists
But reacting to criticisms, the Minister of
Defence said his recommendation should be treated as a suggestion and no more.
The Public Relations Officer to the minister,
Col. Tukur Gusau, when asked on Wednesday to comment on the lawmakers’
statement, said the minister had only made suggestions, adding that he was not
aware of any such comments
from the senators.
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