Benue court sentences Fulani herdsman to four years in prison for breaching open grazing laws

FULANI cattle herdsman Adamu Ango from Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State has been sentenced to four years in prison by an Upper Area Court for falling foul of the Benue State Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law, 2017.

In the first such conviction of its kind, Mr Ango was found guilty by the Upper Area Court in Naka, in Gwer West Local Government Area of Benue State. In December 2017, Benue State introduced the Open Grazing Prohibition Law designed to curb the activities of Fulani cattle herdsmen, restricting cattle grazing to designated areas in a bid to address the incessant clashes between pastoralists and farming communities.

This law passed was in response to the incessant killing of local farmers by herdsmen who accused them of stealing their cattle. Benue State has been at the centre of the herdsmen clashes in the country with herdsmen regularly attacking Tiv, Idoma, Agatu and Igede farming villages.

Up until now, the herdsmen have acted with impunity, believing they are untouchable but that appears to have now changed following this conviction. At the hearing, the presiding judge, Gbagyo Orkpe, also imposed a fine of N1m on the convict and ordered him to pay N5m in compensation for damages to the complainants’ farms.

According to the police prosecutor, Inspector Matthew Ukpor, the case began on August 5, 2025, when a farmer, Udewua Evarestus, reported to Camp Nagi Police Station that he found a large herd of cattle grazing on his rice farm at Tse Ihyo in Gaange Tongov Ward. These Mr Ango's cattle, were also on the farmland of another farmer, Matthew Igbana and destroyed rice, maize and guinea corn crops worth over N6m.

A police patrol team later arrested Mr Ango on the farm with 57 cattle grazing openly on the affected land. During trial, the herdsman admitted to the offense but pleaded for leniency, claiming he acted on the instructions of his employer, Alhaji Jatoi Bui of Doma, Nasarawa State, who allegedly told him to graze freely in Benue after making an unspecified payment.

In delivering judgment, Judge Orkpe said the herder’s confession constituted a clear breach of Section 19(1) and (2) of the 2017 anti-open grazing law. He then handed down the prison term alongside the fines and compensation order.