{"id":75123,"date":"2025-09-08T04:28:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=75123"},"modified":"2025-09-08T04:28:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:28:49","slug":"fct-herders-decry-loss-of-grazing-reserves-urge-government-intervention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/09\/08\/fct-herders-decry-loss-of-grazing-reserves-urge-government-intervention\/","title":{"rendered":"FCT Herders Decry Loss of Grazing Reserves, Urge Government Intervention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Samuel Adeola<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Federal Capital Territory (FCT), chapter, has raised concern over the disappearance of grazing reserves in Abuja, warning that the development is fueling recurring clashes between herders and farmers.<\/p>\n<p>The association\u2019s secretary, Alhaji Ibrahim Ciroma, told Abuja Metro that grazing areas in Kawu, Rubochi, and Paiko-Kore have been taken over by farmers without government compensation or alternative provisions for herders.<\/p>\n<p>He singled out the Paiko-Kore reserve in Gwagwalada as the worst affected, alleging that it has been converted into maize farms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been hell for herders in the FCT. Most grazing reserves, especially Paiko-Kore, have degenerated into flashpoints of conflict between herders and farmers because the government failed to compensate the farmers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Ciroma added that even surrounding hills traditionally used for cattle movement have been cultivated, leaving herders stranded and in some cases forcing them to graze cattle along major roads, including the Abuja airport highway and parts of the city center.<\/p>\n<p>Recalling that grasses were once planted in Paiko-Kore during the tenure of former FCT Minister Muhammad Musa Bello, he said the effort was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n<p>He further alleged that grazing routes across communities have been blocked by farms, citing recent tensions in Gwagwalada and Kwali.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA crisis almost broke out in Wumi village, Dobi ward, a few weeks ago until the Aguma of Gwagwalada, HRH Alhaji Muhammad Magaji, intervened with security operatives,\u201d Ciroma recounted.<\/p>\n<p>He appealed to the FCT Agricultural and Rural Development Secretariat to urgently compensate farmers and plant grasses in reserves across the six area councils to ease tension and prevent further conflict.<\/p>\n<p>It will be recalled that the FCT Minister of State, Hajiya Mariya Mahmoud, last month launched a grass-planting initiative at the Kawu grazing reserve in Bwari, but MACBAN insists that nothing tangible has been done since then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Federal Capital Territory (FCT), chapter, has raised concern over the disappearance of grazing reserves in Abuja, warning that the development is fueling recurring clashes between herders and farmers. The association\u2019s secretary, Alhaji Ibrahim Ciroma, told Abuja Metro that grazing areas in Kawu, Rubochi, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":75124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-75123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75125,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75123\/revisions\/75125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}