No going back on anti-grazing law – Gov Ikpeazu

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has said there is no going back on the anti-grazing law in the state.

Ikpeazu also said his administration is working closely with other States in the South East to address the issue of insecurity in the region.

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The Governor said the Ebubeagu Security outfit would help address the security challenges faced in the region.

He informed that the idea behind the Ebubeagu Security outfit is to collaborate and maximize the comparative advantage in each state of the region, enable the region procure modern technology to facilitate monitoring of movement of persons and to effectively tackle the challenges headlong.

Ikpeazu said the launch of the new security outfit couldn’t have come at a better time and that the State already had in place the Homeland Security Unit with a mandate to protect lives and property of people of the State.

While stating that the state was deepening the Ebubeagu security outfit by recruiting at the ward and community levels citizens who would help in the area of information and intelligence gathering at the grassroots level, the State Chief Executive said: “The State will soon organize a stakeholders forum which will have in attendance all stakeholders in the security sector.

“We are bringing together stakeholders in the security sector to help us evaluate the template we have; this will enable us tackle the security challenges we are faced with. Our target is to create a security architecture robust enough to secure our state.”

On the farmer-herder crisis, the Governor said his administration took proactive steps by enacting a bill through the State Assembly to ban open grazing in the State.

This he said has helped the state in addressing clashes.

“We have a law on open grazing. Aside Benue State, Abia was the first to pass the Anti-Open Grazing law in the country. We are tackling criminal herdsmen from other parts of the country and sub-region. We are enforcing the law,” he said.