By Grace Eshedagho/ Rachael Ogaga
ASABA/Nigeria: In ensuring safety of farmers and guarantee food sufficiency, the Chairman of the State Livestock Management Committee, (DSLMC), Chief Julius Egbedi has promised to inaugurate local government taskforce officers across the 25 local government areas of the state.
Egbedi, who is also the Delta State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, said that the taskforce would be inaugurated to enforce herders’ breech on the ban on open grazing.
He made this known yesterdayduring a courtesy visit to the Orodje of Okpe Kingdom, His Royal Majesty, Major General Felix Mujakperou (Rtd) Orhue 1, in Orerokpe, headquarters of Okpe Local Government Area.
While intimating the traditional ruler on the objective of the committee, Chief Egbedi said that it was to keep them abreast of the role they were to play in ensuring that open grazing was reduced to its barest minimum in the state.
Condemning the level of damage open grazing had caused farmers in the state, the chairman assured farmers that the committee would ensure that they go about their farming activities without the fear of being molested, kidnapped and raped.
On his part, the monarch, who is also the Chairman, Delta State Traditional Rulers’ Council, said that the law was a welcomed development, saying that it would help ensure that peace and security abide in the state.
The Orodje, while lamenting that it was unfortunate that some persons, out of greed, had collected money from the herdsmen, thereby making them claim ownership of the lands and their environment, expressed serious worries over the development.
On cows roaming about peoples’ farmlands and destroying their source of livelihood, the monarch called for the constitution of a taskforce saddled with the enforcement of the law on open grazing at the local level.
He also advocated the empowerment of the taskforce officers to be able to effectively carryout their assignments.
