The Bayelsa State Livestock Management Committee has held in custody 34 cows for allegedly flouting the law banning open grazing of all forms in the state. The Bayelsa State Chairman of the Committee and Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. David Alagoa on Monday stated that the cows were withheld by the government of the state around the axis of Bayelsa Palm area of Yenagoa. The action was backed up by the ban on open grazing in the state by Governor Douye Diri. He signed it into the Livestock Breeding and Marketing Regulation Bill, in March 2021 after it was passed into law by the House of Assembly.
As gathered in a statement by Brainnewspaper Governor Diri said, “by assenting to the law, any person found engaging in open grazing of livestock on foot commits an offence and would be arrested and prosecuted with the livestock impounded.”
Illustrative photo
The commissioner said they have been violating the law against open grazing by secretly trekking from the Bayelsa Palm to the Swali slaughter at night around 1am. The commissioner futher added that they have been monitoring the activities of the Herdsmen around the area, so they decided to surprise them. He said no fine is going to be collected, according to the law on open grazing in the state, all cows are to be siezed and the violaters be prosecuted accordingly.
