The governor of Rivers, Nyesom Wike has said he will soon submit the bill to ban open grazing in the state to the house of assembly.
Speaking on Wednesday at the inauguration of a road in Obio-Akpor LGA, the governor said the bill is in tune with the resolution made by the southern governors’ forum.
“You can’t go to the farm anymore. Those who rear cattle, they’ll not allow your crops to grow. Let me say clearly. Now that the house of assembly has come back, we have to submit the bill on anti-open grazing as we agreed in the Southern Governors Forum,” Wike said.
“So that everybody must understand it, it’s clear, without any hesitation. We must do it to protect our farms, to protect our women, to protect our youths so that nobody will go and kill them.
Governor Wike asserted that Nigerians who had considered the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a better alternative to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, must be regretting the deplorable condition of the country under APC.
“The exchange rate has now got to N510 to a Dollar. When they took over, it was N150 to a Dollar. They said they’ll give employment. Do we have employment today? Are your children employed?”
According to Governor Wike, Nigeria is now on life support and requires prayers from well-meaning Nigerians in order to salvage the county.
“Since APC came into power, you can now see what Nigeria has turned to. Each day you wake up, you hear people are being killed. If you watch television and read the news in newspapers, you will hear so and so number are killed or kidnapped in so and so state.
“That is not what I thought all of us needed. The country is on oxygen (life support). Nobody knows what will happen next. As we are today, Nigeria is in dire need of help. Nigeria needs prayers; to our mothers and sisters, you must kneel down and pray to God to salvage this country.”
Governor Wike also stated that the APC led federal government has not done anything in Rivers state for the people. He described as untrue the claim by the federal government that it is jointly executing the Bonny-Bodo Roads.
“The only thing they are arguing now is that they are doing Bonny-Bodo Road. No, with due respect, that’s not correct. That road was supposed to be done by NLNG and the federal government. NLNG brought their N60billion, federal Government did not bring any Kobo.
“Now they are trying to use the tax that NLNG is supposed to pay to do the road. The tax would have been shared from the federation account and part of the money would have come to Rivers State. So, the federal government cannot say that they’re the one doing Bonny -Bodo road. All of us are jointly doing the road.”
