FG can't stop non-Nigerian herdsmen – Ogheh
The Federal Government on Friday cited
the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol as a reason why non-citizens of
Nigeria are still allowed to graze their cattle across the country.
It has been established that many herdsmen who are involved in clashes in Nigerian villages were not Nigerians.
The ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol, the government stated, has given the right of free movement to citizens of member countries...
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh,
who disclosed this at the opening of a two -day Stakeholders’
Consultative Forum on Grazing Reserves and Stock Routes in Abuja on
Thursday, told journalists that the law is similar to the fundamental
right to freedom of movement in the Nigerian Constitution.
Ogbeh said: “The Nigerian Constitution has given every citizen the
fundamental right to freedom of movement in search of legitimate
businesses; transhumance pastoralism is seen along these lines.
For pastoralists from neighbouring West African countries, access to
grazing rights in other countries in the ECOWAS zone including Nigeria,
are guaranteed by the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol of 1998 and ECOWAS
Protocol of Free Movement of Goods and Persons in West Africa.”
The minister stated that the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol allows for
herders to move across borders in search of pasture upon fulfilling the
conditions laid down in the Protocol.
“So it is not strange to see a Malian, Burkinabe or Nigerien
pastoralist grazing his cows, sheep or goats in Nigeria or a Nigerian
pastoralist grazing his livestock in Benin, Togo or Ghana and by
extension, transhumance pastoralists from other neighbouring countries,”
he added.
source; thenation
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