Community leaders and security agencies in Abia State have banned night grazing and arms bearing by herdsmen in the state.
The decision was contained in a communique they issued at the end of a town hall meeting in Umuahia, the state capital.
The forum also banned herdsmen from bearing arms and recommended that all herdsmen entering the state should be profiled.
It, however, said that farmers should not poison cows or resort to revenge in the event of any damage being done to their crops by cattle, but should seek redress through lawful means.
Speaking at the event, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who was represented by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Ukpai Agwu Ukpai, directed traditional rulers in the state to desist from allocating grazing land to herdsmen in their communities without consulting other stakeholders in the community.
He said that government was aware of the unfriendly relationship between cattle rearers in the state with farmers and host communities, but assured that government was making efforts to avoid any clashes.
The farmers in the state had warned that they would no longer tolerate further destruction of their crops by cattle, accusing herdsmen of deliberately inflicting economic damage on their host communities.
The state Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Chief Dunlop Okoro, gave the warning during the town hall meeting on herdsmen/ farmers crisis in Umuahia.
He said farmers in the state had been accommodative to the visiting herdsmen but instead of reciprocating their hospitality the herdsmen destroy crops and farmlands with impunity.
In his submission, Prof Joseph Ukpabi, who represented the Executive Director of the National Root Crop Research Institute, Umudike, decried the incessant destructions of research farms in the institute by cows.
