Muslim community backs Benue anti-grazing law

The Muslim community in Benue State has thrown its weight behind the anti-open grazing law recently enacted by the state government.

Speaking when he led his members to the Government House in Makurdi to break the Ramadan fast with Governor Samuel Ortom in the spirit of religious harmony,

the leader of the Muslim community in the state, Sheik Ibrahim Aliyu, said those criticizing the law were ignorant of its content and intent, adding that it was not targeted against any particular ethnic group, faith or sect.

Aliyu said Muslims who knew the extent of the carnage done to lives and properties in the state by suspected armed herders stood solidly behind Ortom as the law was meant to safeguard the lives and properties of the people.

He said the Muslim Umma in the state would soon undertake a tour of the far North to explain the content and intent of the law to fellow Muslims ‘being misled’ to attack the Benue government.

Responding, Ortom who was represented by his deputy, Engr Benson Abounu, thanked the Muslim community for supporting ‘the honest attempt’ by the state government to tackle incessant clashes between farmers and herders.