Open Grazing: Residents Protest As Stray Cow Injures 6 In A/Ibom

No fewer than six persons, including the driver, were injured during the morning rush hours on yesterday at Okon clan axis of Eket local government area as rampaging cow strayed out of the herds and rammed into a speeding car, rendering it a total wreak.

Effiom Samuel, an eye witness told our Correspondent that the accident would have been more fatal, but for the driver’s ingenuity.

“The driver was smart and alert. Instead of swerving to dodge one cow and hitting another vehicle carrying plenty passengers, he held the steering and took the hit. He saved lives, but his car was a total wreck by the impact of the collision,” he noted.

It was gathered that a stampede was averted as the cow suddenly escaped from the nearby bush and ran dangerously with full force into the  major Eket – Uyo road, scaring bystanders, transporters and commuters.

The herdsman was said to have fled as youths of the Okon community rallied manhunt, lamenting that farmlands and crops have been devastated by the plodding animals on rampage without effective regulations.

“Till now, no one can identify the owner of that cow because it was just roaming the road alone, like it does every day.

Investigation is ongoing to identify the owner and the Nigeria Police are on it,” Bassey Okon, a local resident disclosed.

The protesters under the aegis of Concerned Citizens of Eket LGA (CREL) led by Comrade Martin Brown, recalled that “these ugly sights have been happening consistently. Our roads have become grazing fields, and we are all just waiting for the day luck runs out.

“Akwa Ibom is a modern State. We cannot preach development and progress while cattle roam our highways freely. Our roads are for vehicles, not livestock. Our streets are for people, not for stray animals.

Government must act now. We need a total ban on open grazing across Akwa Ibom State. We need a monitoring and enforcement system in Eket LGA and every other LGA, so owners of stray animals are held responsible when damage happens. We need designated ranching zones where livestock business can thrive without putting public lives at risk.

Today, it was a car at Okon. Tomorrow it could be a school bus;  it could be your child, your sister, your mother. Let this protest gets to the Governor’s table. Let it get to Eket LGA Chairman. Let it get to every leader who can act. The people deserve safe roads. we deserve to drive without fear of cows,” the protest leader, Comrade Brown, stressed.