Open-grazing law: Benue to auction confiscated livestock

The Benue state government has directed its Ministry of Finance to appoint a registered auctioneer to auction livestock confiscated in violation of the state’s open grazing law 2017.
State Commissioner for Information, Lawrence Onoja, disclosed this while briefing journalists after the state Executive Council meeting yesterday in Makurdi.
Onoja said the livestock were confiscated from some cattle owners in the state who violated the subsisting law against open grazing.
The commissioner said the government also gave the livestock owners up to March 19 to pay stipulated fines to the state Ministry of Agriculture to claim their animals.
He said “failure of the owners to do so will result in the livestock being auctioned as from March 20.
” Onoja also disclosed that the Council approved the release of N261 million as counterpart fund for International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) programme in the state.
He said the Council also approved the constitution of the Debt Management Committee for the state, similar to the Debt Management Office (DMO) at the federal level.