IPOB Wants S’East, S’South to Back out of Grazing Commission Bill

By Emmanuel Ugwu in in  Umuahia

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has alerted the National Assembly members from the South-east and South-south zones on the grave danger in supporting the bill on grazing commission, saying that it portends bad omen for the two zones.

In a statement issued by its Head of Media and Publicity, Emma Powerful, IPOB said urged lawmakers from the two zones to back out from supporting the bill as it represents another means of “bringing invaders to our land” in the guise of setting up grazing reserves.

The separatist organisation specifically upbraided the National Assembly members from South-east and South-south for supporting the bill, which if passed into law would turn out to haunt them and the people they represent.

Though the grazing commission bill sponsored by Senator Zainab Kure from Niger State has sailed through second reading, it has continued to generate controversy.

For instance, the pan Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has rejected it, describing it as obnoxious while Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, reportedly said the bill, if passed into law, would be unworkable.

IPOB said it was baffled that members of National Assembly from South-east and South-south have apparently failed to read between the lines and see the bill for what it is: a tool for dispossession of people’s lands, and have allowed themselves to be used to achieve that goal.

According to IPOB, the fact that the bill had passed through second reading meant that the federal lawmakers from the South-east and South-south were only serving their selfish interests and legislating for the interest of the people they represent.

“We in IPOB are warning them that this is a systematic way of bringing the invaders to our land and they are coming to Islamise us, the children of Chukwu Okike Abiama, God Almighty,” IPOB said in the statement.

It also warned governors of South-east and South-south “to tread with caution because we don’t have places to use as Fulani ranch” adding that any governor that goes ahead to allocate land for grazing “will bear the consequences and posterity will never forgive those who sabotaged his or her people.”

IPOB argued that the northern part of the Nigeria has enough land mass to accommodate grazing reserves and governors from the northern states should provide the lands for the ranches.

Citing Argentina and Australia that rank as the highest producers of cows in the world, IPOB said the north should emulate the efficient manner they manage their ranches without ravaging farmlands and causing problems with farmers.