Grazing reserves: Anti-graft agency to prosecute encroachers

The Zamfara State Anti-Corruption and Public Complaints Commission (ZACPC) threatened to prosecute any person or group of persons that encroached into grazing reserves and livestock corridors.

The commission announced this in a statement released by its public relations officer, Sanusi Ibrahim Tudu, yesterday.

He said the agency had completed its high-level consultative advocacy tour, securing unanimous inter-agency alignment to protect state grazing reserves and cattle corridors (burtali).

The extensive consultations established unified institutional backing across the justice, security, administrative and grassroots sectors to address the unauthorised land allocations fueling rural conflicts, he said.

Key achievements of the tour, he said, include securing operational security support, cartographic and survey commitments, prosecutorial channels and state-wide faith-based sermon mobilisation.

“With the conclusion of this preparatory phase, the commission is transitioning into the next stage of its operation: the direct execution of the 22-day public sensitisation and compliance drive across the state,” the statement said.

He said the next phase will deploy GIS boundary mapping, enforce binding Integrity pacts across all the 14 local government areas and 17 emirates, and initiate legal prosecution against unauthorised occupation of livestock corridors and grazing reserves under an impending State Executive Order.

The anti-graft agency warned all land speculators and encroachers to vacate designated corridors as full field operations would commence.