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.
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.