The Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, has come under heavy attacks from the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party and Ohanaeze Ndigbo for pulling out of the agreement by southern governors to enact anti-open grazing laws in the region.

As a solution to the incessant invasion of farms by herdsmen and their cows and the attendant clashes between herders and farmers, governors of the 17 southern states, under the aegis of the Southern Governors Forum, had at a meeting in Asaba, Delta State in May and another meeting in Lagos in August, resolved to pass laws to ban open grazing.

Following the resolution, Bayelsa, Ondo, Ekiti and Rivers states have passed anti-open grazing law.

The Houses of Assembly in Osun and Ogun states have passed the bill and transmitted to the governors for assent, while Enugu House of Assembly recently conducted a public hearing.

However, during a recent visit to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in Abuja, the Imo State Governor, Uzodinma, had hinted in an interview with journalists that Imo had no plan to ban open grazing.

But speaking with one of correspondents on Friday, the Publicity Secretary of the PDP in Imo State, Ogubundu Nwadike, said that the governor was working against the interest and the well-being of the people of the state.

Nwadike said, “The recent statements made by Governor Uzodinma on a national television, in which he emphatically said that there was no anti-open grazing law in Imo State, and that the sit-at-home order was not complied with in the state were unfortunate because they were the direct opposite of the verifiable reality.

“There is a 2006 law prohibiting open grazing of cattle in Imo State, and also on all the Mondays of the month of August 2021, Imo people sat at home in frightened compliance with the order to sit at home issued by the Indigenous People of Biafra.

“Our party, however, notes with satisfaction that not only has the Imo State House of Assembly confirmed that the anti-open grazing law exists and is functional in the state, but also that Governor Uzodinma himself has, through his Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Honourable Declan Emelumba, made a recant of the false statement by the governor, albeit with the claim that he was misquoted by the press.

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“This party expresses strong aversion to that conduct of the governor’s in public in which he arrogantly displayed such unpardonable ignorance as to state that Imo State did not have a law prohibiting open grazing of cattle, whereas such a law exists and is equally functional. It is an act that is very capable of worsening the already tarnished image of Imo State and Imo people under the watch of the governor.

“Imo PDP, therefore, wants Governor Uzodinma to, as a matter of urgency, apologise to Imo people for making such false statements with emphasis, when he should have kept silent and saved himself, Imo State and Imo people the attendant embarrassment, shame and disgrace.”

Similarly, the Ohanaeze Youth Council flayed the governor and the Imo State House of Assembly for opposing the position of the Southern Governors Forum on its stand on anti-open grazing law.

The OYC National President, Igboayaka Igboayaka, said that the governor was endangering the lives of the people of the state for refusing to enacting anti-open grazing law in the state.

He said, “Ninety-nine per cent of Imolites have signed in for the anti-open grazing law which is the only viable means to stop the killing of Ndigbo by the dreaded killer Fulani herders.

“The Imo State House of Assembly shouldn’t delay, so as not to push the youths and IPOB to take the law into their own hands through self-defence which will plunge the state into a state of anarchy.

“There’s anger, suspicious among the youths that the Imo State House of Assembly members want to jeopardise their lives and compromise their security.”