Bayelsa Enacts Law Prohibiting Open Grazing

Bayelsa State has enacted a law prohibiting the open grazing of livestock in the state and establishment of ranching.Governor Douye Diri assented to the Livestock Breeding, Rearing and Marketing Regulation Law 2021 at the Executive Chamber of Government House in Yenagoa.

His words: “Bayelsa State welcomes all and sundry to eke out a living legitimately. The people of Bayelsa want to have a mutual and harmonious relationship with non-natives and natives”.
“The essence of the law is to avert and forestall any clash between herdsmen, farmers, natives and non-natives as experienced in some states.”

The law, according to him, stipulates that any herdsman found with arms, whether licenced or not, should be arrested.
The law prohibits the movement of cattle on foot from other parts of the country into the state, inspection of livestock and certification by veterinary doctors at entry points into the state among others.

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.The Governor also signed into law the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Law 2021.

He explained that the law was to prevent certain harmful practices against women and children.He said with its enactment, Bayelsa has domesticated the federal law, which had been in existence.