The Taraba State branch of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has rejected the law banning grazing in the state, saying it will challenge the ban in court.

Reacting over the passage of the executive bill banning grazing in the state by the state House of Assembly last week, the chairman of the association Malam Sahabi Mahammmed said the association would challenge both the House and Taraba State government in the court.

“The this law would not see the light of the day because it was unconstitutional, ill-conceived and targeted at one ethnic group,” Sahabi said, adding, “Rather than resolving the recent killings of Fulani and their cows in the Mambilla Plateau and bring perpetrators to book, the House of Assembly and the state government were busy causing more crisis and showing hate to the Fulani who are indigenes of the state.”

He urged members of the association and all those engaged in breeding of livestock in the state to be calm and law abiding as the association would follow legal means to ensure that the constitutional right of the Fulani was not denied.

The speaker of the House, Peter Diah, said the law which is now cited as the Taraba State Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law, would come into operation as soon as the state governor, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku, assented to it.

The House had in a brief sitting passed the bill following public hearing in three locations in the state.

The bill was sent to the House by Governor Darius Ishaku last month. (Daily Trust)