Akwa Ibom Governor Udom Emmanuel on Wednesday signed a bill prohibiting open grazing in the state into law.

Mr Emmanuel, in a statement published on his Facebook page, said the law was informed by the plight of farmers who have suffered loss as a result of open grazing. 

“It is very painful for a farmer to wake and discover that his crops of many months of sweat and toil have been destroyed,” Mr Emmanuel said.

“Just as people rear animals to make profit, the farmer also aims for profit, as such no one should destroy another person’s source of survival.”

He said with the law in place, open rearing and grazing of livestock is now prohibited in the state and whoever is found guilty will face the wrath of the law. 

“Anyone whose livestock strays into another person’s farm or property, no matter how highly placed, will be made to face the full weight of this law,” Mr Emmanuel said. 

With Wednesday development, Akwa Ibom joins other southern states where open grazing laws have been assented into law after Southern Governors’Forum unanimously agreed that open grazing should be banned across states in the region. 

States like Lagos, Rivers and Ondo now have laws banning open grazing of animals. State assemblies in Enugu and Osun have also passed anti-open grazing bill.