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This is a 1969 Court Ruling on Open Cattle Grazing…

The battle between pastoral cattle herders and farmers is not new…. somehow, majority of Nigerians do not know, including State actors, that there is an existing precedential Court Ruling on these squabbles.
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*Hon.Justice Adewale Thompson’s 1969 Judgment on Open Cattle Grazing – Suit no AB/26/66.*

Hon.Justice Adewale Thompson: 17th April,1969.

Suit no AB/26/66 at Abeokuta Division of the High Court.

“I do not accept the contention of Defendants that a custom exists which imposes an obligation on the owner of farm to fence his farm whilst the owner of cattle allows his cattle to wander like pests and cause damage. Such a custom if it exists, is unreasonable and I hold that it is repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience and therefore unenforceable…..in that it is highly unreasonable to impose the burden of fencing a farm on the farmer without the corresponding obligation on the cattle owner to fence in his cattle.” Sequence to that I ban open grazing for it is inimical to peace and tranquillity and the cattle owners must fence or ranch their animals for peace to reign in these communities.

* Note that IT IS SETTLED LAW since the defendants never appealed against this decision. So open grazing activities anywhere or on someone’s turf in the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a violation of Federal law.

Note that the case ran for three (3) years in the Court from 1966 to 1969.

*It’s high time Fulani leaders are confronted with the certified true copy (CTC) of the judgement.*

*Copied*