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Open Grazing: Obaseki’s Demand For Fund Betrayal Of Edo People, Southern Govs’ Resolution – CSO

Published

4 years ago

October 21, 2021

Editor

… Declares No Ceding Of Land To FG

… Demands Law Prohibiting Open Grazing

… Recommends Six Months Jail Term For Violators

The Edo Civil Society Organisations, EDOCSO, says governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki’s recent demand for fund from the Federal Government for a National Livestock Transformation Programme was a betrayal of Edo people and resolution reached at a town hall meeting by the Southern Forum Governors’ Forum on open grazing.

Obaseki had, after attending the town hall meeting on Tuesday, flew to Abuja on Wednesday to demand from the Federal Government fund for Livestock Transformation Programme in the state.

Obaseki said in the meeting with Buhari: “It should also be able to help Edo people benefit from the funding that is now being made available for people who want to go into the livestock business and have made investments in ranches and other similar livestock programmes.”

But EDOCSO, in a press conference held in Benin on Thursday to make it stand and that of Edo people known, said if the agreement reached at the town hall meeting by the Southern Governors’ Forum was in variation with Obaseki’s demand from Buhari, then it is a betrayal of trust, adding that such would not be tolerated in the state.

Bishop Osadolor Ochei
Interim Chairman, The Extended Council, TEC, while addressing the press at the conference called on Obaseki to obey the decision and resolution he and other Southern governors reached at the town hall meeting.

While noting that traditional rulers and the church in the state have all made it clear to the Governor that the state has no land for open grazing, Osadolor called on the Governor to, as a matter of urgency, transmit a bill on anti-open-grazing to the state House of Assembly so as to pass it in to law so that “we all can have peace. ”

“Edo people will not be a party to ceding their lands to the Federal Government plan in whatever disguise. There is no going back on the ban on open grazing in Edo state which is the yearnings of Edo people. Owners of cattle should build their ranches to carry out their legitimate business.

“We are giving him till the second week of November to transmit the said bill to the Edo State House of Assembly so it can become law,” he demanded.

He posited that, “Cattle owner that allows his cattle to graze on a farmer’s land or destroy any property should be made to serve a jail term not less than six months and pay compensation to the farmer whose farm is destroyed. He should also stand the chance of forfeiting the cattle to the state government.”

Osadolor further posited: “The provision of colony to cattle owners should be discouraged. Every cattle owner should purchase/lease land for the purpose of ranching and/or any other farming operations.All cattle owners must ranch their cattle. It is not the business of government to provide lands for cattle owners.”

The civil society organistion therefore called on Obaseki to stop further discussion on the National Livestock Transformation Programme with the Federal Government irrespective of the monetary benefits.

While calling on the state government to invest on the agric sector, the civil society organistion stressed that this would address food scarcity and other issues in the state.

Related Topics:EDOCSO Obaseki Open Grazing

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FULL LIST: Ghana Releases Identities Of Helicopter Crash Victims

Published

20 minutes ago

August 7, 2025

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The Ghanaian Government has released the names of individuals who died in Wednesday morning’s military helicopter crash.

The crash involved a Z-9 helicopter belonging to the Ghana Armed Forces, which lost contact during a flight from Accra, the capital, to Obuasi, a gold-mining town in the south, where the crew headed for an official engagement.

In a post via its official X handle on Wednesday, the Ghana Armed Forces said the victims comprise eight people.

The names and portfolios of the victims are listed below:

1. Edward Omane Boamah – Minister for Defence

2. ⁠Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed – Minister for Environment, Science and Technology

3. Muniru Mohammed – Acting deputy, National Security Coordinator and former Minister for Food and Agriculture

4. Samuel Sarpong – Vice- Chairman, National Democratic Congress

5. ⁠Samuel Aboagye – Former parliamentary candidate

6. Peter Baafemi Anala – ⁠Squadron leader

7. ⁠Manaen Twum Ampadu – Flying officer

8. ⁠Ernest Addo – Sergeant

Following the sad development, Ghanaian President John Mahama described the incident as a national tragedy and suspended activities upon receiving the news.

He also directed that flags fly at half-mast to honour the memory of the victims.

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Bodies Of Helicopter Crash Victims Arrive In Accra

Published

47 minutes ago

August 7, 2025

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The Ghana Armed Forces on Wednesday confirmed the arrival in Accra of the remains of the victims of the Z-9 military helicopter crash, which claimed the lives of eight personnel.

It stated that the victims’ bodies were transported from the crash site aboard a Ghana Air Force Casa aircraft and received at the Air Force Base in Accra on August 6, 2025.

According to a statement issued by the Acting Director General, Public Relations, Ghana Navy, Captain Veronica Arhin, government officials, military personnel, and sympathisers led by the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Julius Debrah, were present to receive the bodies.

The statement said the remains have since been deposited at the 37 Military Hospital for preservation and preparations for burial.

It noted that all eight bodies were recovered from the crash site located in the Sikaman area, near Adansi Akrofuom in Ghana’s Ashanti Region.

The Ghana Armed Forces extended its appreciation to the people of Sikaman and the security services for their support during the recovery operations.

“The Deputy Minister for Defence, Hon. Brogya Genfi, and the Military High Command extend their deepest condolences to the families in this difficult national tragedy,” the statement added.

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Hiroshima Marks 80 Years As US-Russia Nuclear Tensions Rise

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13 hours ago

August 7, 2025

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Japan marked 80 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday with a ceremony reminding the world of the horrors unleashed, as sabre-rattling between the United States and Russia keeps the nuclear “Doomsday Clock” close to midnight.

A silent prayer was held at 8:15 am (2315 GMT), the moment when US aircraft Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” over the western Japanese city on August 6, 1945.

On a sweltering morning, hundreds of black-clad officials, students and survivors laid flowers at the memorial cenotaph, with the ruins of a domed building in the background, a stark reminder of the horrors that unfolded.

In a speech, Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui warned of “an accelerating trend toward military buildup around the world”, against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the chaos in the Middle East.

“These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history,” he said.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said it was Japan’s mission “to take the lead… toward a world without nuclear weapons”.

The final death toll of the Hiroshima attack would hit around 140,000 people, killed not just by the colossal blast and the ball of fire, but also later by the radiation.

Three days after “Little Boy”, on August 9, another atomic bomb killed 74,000 people in Nagasaki. Imperial Japan surrendered on August 15, bringing an end to World War II.

Today, Hiroshima is a thriving metropolis of 1.2 million but the attacks live on in the memories of many.

On the eve of the ceremony, people began lining up to pay their respects to the victims in front of the cenotaph.

Before dawn on Wednesday, families who lost loved ones in the attack also came to pray.

Yoshie Yokoyama, 96, who arrived in a wheelchair with her grandson, told reporters that her parents and grandparents were bomb victims.

“My grandfather died soon after the bombing, while my father and mother both died after developing cancer. My parents-in-law also died, so my husband couldn’t see them again when he came back from battlefields after the war.

“People are still suffering,” she added.

Wednesday’s ceremony was set to include a record of around 120 countries and regions including, for the first time, Taiwanese and Palestinian representatives.

The United States — which has never formally apologised for the bombings — was represented by its ambassador to Japan. Russia and China were absent.

Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots organisation that last year won the Nobel Peace Prize, is representing the dwindling number of survivors, known as hibakusha.

As of March, there were 99,130 hibakusha, according to the Japanese health ministry, with the average age of 86.

“I want foreign envoys to visit the peace memorial museum and understand what happened,” the group’s co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki told local media ahead of the commemorations.

Pope Leo XIV said in a statement that “in our time of mounting global tensions and conflicts”, Hiroshima and Nagasaki remained “living reminders of the profound horrors wrought by nuclear weapons”.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “the very weapons that brought such devastation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki are once again being treated as tools of coercion”.

– Younger generation –
The attacks remain the only time atomic bombs have been used in wartime.

Kunihiko Sakuma, 80, who survived the blasts as a baby, told AFP he was hopeful that there could eventually be a nuclear-free world.

“The younger generation is working hard for that end,” he said ahead of the ceremony.

But in January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock” shifted to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest in its 78-year history.

The clock symbolising humanity’s distance from destruction was last moved to 90 seconds to midnight over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russia and the United States account for around 90 percent of the world’s over 12,000 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

SIPRI warned in June that “a dangerous new nuclear arms race is emerging at a time when arms control regimes are severely weakened,” with nearly all of the nine nuclear-armed states modernising their arsenals.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump said that he had ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines following an online spat with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.