Sunday 6 November 2016

Cattle On The Loose Compete With Vehicles In Nigeria’s Capital

The indiscriminate movement of cattle around the Nigeria's Federal
Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, has attracted a warning from the
administration of the FCT.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr Muhammed Bello,
issued the warning on Saturday while reacting to the increasing
movement of herdsmen and their cattle within Abuja.

Mr Bello was reacting to the increasing presence of cattle in the city
centre of the nation's capital, which he said must not compete with
vehicular movement.

He asked the herdsmen to move only within bush paths and not in the metropolis.

The minister further assured Abuja residents that the FTC
administration was accelerating the development of the grazing
reserves for cattle.


Muhammed Bello says animals should not compete with vehicular traffic
on the street
While the residents express displeasure with the movement of cows in
the city centre, herdsmen say they have nowhere else to go, requesting
that the government should create grazing areas for them.

Movement of cattle within Abuja has become a familiar occurrence for
many residents of the FCT.

Cattle now co-habit with human beings, disrupting car movements and
littering the streets with their dung.

This has raised serious concerns among residents, with some insisting
that animals should not be moved around where people live and a city
like Abuja, the nation's capital where foreign could come into at any
time.

Cattle grazing is illegal in Abuja's city centre, but the recent surge
has raised questions on what the FCT administration is doing to
address the menace.

The Abuja Environmental Protection Board put together a taskforce that
includes security operatives to enforce the directive of the FCT
administration. But that has not yielded much result.

A total of 33,485 hectares have already been earmarked for grazing
reserves to cater for about seven million herds of cattle.

The reserves are Paikon Kore – 8,500 hectares, Karshi – 6,000
hectares, Kawu in Bwari – 9,000 hectares and Rubochi in Kuje which is
9,985 hectares.

==ChannelsTV

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