INSECURITY : ENACT STATE ANTI OPEN GRAZING LAW, EXIT ARMED HEADSMEN FROM OUR FORESTS. . . Esan group tells Gov. Obaseki.

By Mike ALADENIKA.

Edo State governor, Mr Godwin OBASEKI has been called upon to do the needful by enacting the State Anti-Open Grazing Law with a view to checking the seemingly uncontrollable banditry in Edo state with special attention to the Benin -Auch road and Edo central axis of the state. 

The request for the enactment of the law was one of the many issues raised by the leadership of Esan Okpa Initiative(EOI) at a press conference in Benin City. 

While addressing the conference, the president, Esan Okpa Initiative, Bar. Matthew Egbadon, flangged by other members of the Executive expressed worries that "the protracted kidnapping, ransom taking, killing and rapping of our women had made farmers to desert the farms, the consequence of which would be famine, "as farmers have abandoned their farms, as the bandits have laid siege to all farmlands and major roads in Esanland".

"The seemingly helpless situation of our people in Esanland, in the face of coordinated attacks and abductions, is of great concern to us".

Beyond the enactment of the said  Anti-Open Grazing Law in the state, the Esan sons and daughters' umbrella body suggested among others the clearing of the "bushes on both sides of the road between Benin City and Ekpoma, to ensure that the bandits and kidnappers do not a ready hiding abode, from where they laughed their ambush and attack unsuspecting road users".

"The armed herdsmen should be given a time line within which they must exit the forests and farmlands in Edo State or else be forced out".

The Esan Okpa Initiative also recommended that " Local Government Councils on the state must be made more accountable for the security lapses within their areas of jurisdiction".

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