Operatives of the Agro Rangers team of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, have successfully tracked and arrested herdsmen and their herds who were foraging Aroro Kole, along Igbo Oloyin in the Akinyẹle Local Government Area of the State of Oyo. The rangers were informed by distressed members of the community who encountered the illegal herding activity. The members of the community are tasked with reporting illegal activities of hunters and herders and farmers in the reserved Old Oyo areas.

The Oyo State Government had last year established an anti open grazing law that prohibits open grazing in the entirety of Oyo State.

Iskilu Akinsanya, the State’s Commandant of the NSCDC in Oyo, told newsmen on Tuesday, that one of the herdsmen, 21 year-old Babangida Musa, was arrested on Sunday, 25th October 2020.

The Commandant added that investigations revealed that the leader of the herdsmen, one 28 year-old Yinusa, and another by the name Saidu, 28, came from Ogbomoso. Yinusa told them that they were enroute Ogbomoso from Oyo town when they were arrested. Akinsanya said that no less than 400 cows were seen grazing within the area.

Kole Tijani, Chairman of the Aroro Kole community in Igbo Oloyin, pleaded with the governor Seyi Makinde, to provide sufficient patrol vehicles as well as important logistics like communication gadgets to boost the response time of the NSCDC team in the rural interiors.

According to Commandant Akinsanya, no sophisticated weapons were found on the herdsmen. Items recovered from the herdsmen are cutlass, knife, ropes, and a bag.

While the Agro Rangers are tasked with protecting the agricultural resources of Nigeria, they are also to ensure that the lives of farmers and herders are protected. Back in August, a 27 year-old farmer named Abraham Alamu was arrested in Ogbomoso, Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, by the NSCDC Agro Rangers, for allegedly killing a herdsman by the name Shua’ib Adamu.

Source: NSCDC