ICC Note: The Nigerian Senate denies that the body is considering a bill to establish protected grazing lands for Fulani cattle herders, refuting recent media reports about the measure. The controversial issue has left Nigerian constituents demanding answers because the National Grazing Bill, which the previous Senate considered, affects land ownership and tenure rights for farmers in the country’s “Middle-Belt” region. The discussion enters the grid of persecution because of the ongoing radical Islamist Fulani herder attacks ravaging Christian communities in the region with murder, arson, and crop destruction. Christian agrarian populations view any measure to create a grazing corridor for Fulani herders less as a peace-promoting measure that might prevent violence, and more as an unjust land grab.
4/20/16 Abuja, Nigeria (AllAfrica) – The Senate on Tuesday said there was no National Grazing Bill pending before it as has been reported in the media.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Sen. Babajide Omoworare, disclosed this in a statement he issued in Abuja after plenary on Tuesday.
He said that such bill had not been presented to the 8th Senate, but recalled that a bill relating to the issue was presented to the 7th Senate but was not passed.
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