BREAKING: Okowa Assents To Bill Banning Open Grazing In Delta
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa signed the Anti-Open Grazing Bill on Thursday, putting an end to open grazing in Delta State.
Known as the ‘Delta State Livestock, Breeding, Rearing, and Marketing Regulation Bill 2021,’ it is a bill that regulates the breeding, rearing, and marketing of livestock in the state of Mississippi. The governor signed the bill into law 10 days after it passed the third reading and was passed by the State House of Assembly during plenary on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, presided over by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Sherrif Oborevwori.
The law prohibits residents and individuals in the state from carrying firearms, whether licensed or not, and it also tries to curb arbitrary livestock rearing and movements.
The Delta State Urban and Regional Planning Bill 2020 was also signed into law by Governor Okowa.
The Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, was accompanied by his Deputy, Christopher Ochor, and other principal officers of the state legislature when they presented the bills to the governor for his signature.
Okowa called on the federal government to help interested farmers build ranches around the country after signing the two bills into law.
He stated that the two laws were critical to Delta State, emphasizing that the State Livestock Breeding, Rearing, and Marketing Regulations Law had taken on a new life in the country.
He insisted that the laws were not passed to persecute anyone, but rather to encourage people to live in peace with one another and respect the views of others, saying that the Delta State House of Assembly had done the state proud by passing them.
Okowa recalled that the Southern Governors met and took certain decisions which they believed was in the best interest of the nation.
“Today is quite a remarkable day in the history of this state because we signed two important bills into law this morning.
“We believe that it is in the best interest of security, we believe that it is in the best interest of ensuring food security and that it will help us to ensure that we are able to cause people from across this nation who will find themselves outside their own states inhabiting in Delta State to live with Deltans in a peaceful and respectable manner with each other having respect for each other.
“We believe as the Southern Governors had stated that we must start to look into other ways of ensuring that we are able to breed and that we are able to rare our cattle and other livestock in such a manner that is acceptable in modern times.
“We believe that this is something workable, many times it is difficult for people to embrace change, but I believe that the world all over is changing by the day and if you find that change is going to bring peace, if you find that change is going to bring development and even economic enhancement, it should truly be embraced.
“I think that it is time for our nation to depart from the old ways and to look into the future, ensuring that we do things in the best way for development.
“We must encourage best actions to be taken towards ensuring that there is peaceful coexistence within the various ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and the various states and also ensuring that we are able to do our businesses in such a manner that is respectable and I think that is what this law stands for,” the governor declared.
