By Patrick Ahanor Benin City
Edo state governor, Comrade Godwin Obaseki, yesterday kicked against the Bill for a law to establish an agency for the control of nomadic cattle rearing and grazing. Th e Bill, which was sponsored by some legislators, had scaled through second reading at the State House of Assembly. Obaseki, who spoke at the ongoing public hearing of the Bill, said he only became aware of the draft in the media. Represented by the State Solicitor General, Mr. Wole Iyamu, the governor said: “Th ey say a desperate situation requires desperate solution. Th at is how we have gotten to this point. However, this Bill, with every due respect to the originators, does not begin to address the problem. “In that case, we recognised that it is the duty of the House of Assembly to legislate and it is not in our place to challenge that duty because it is a constitutional duty. “If this Bill had gone through the rigours that an executive Bill always go through, that is, our draftsmen have looked at it, compared it with existing legislation, look at the implications and constitutional issues”. Other groups that made submissions at the public debate also asked the legislators to throw out the Bill.
