Posts falsely claim Nigeria’s Abia state governor banned cows from the north

“Breaking news: Governor Alex Otti bans cow imports from northern Nigeria, urges Abians to switch to fish or Ehi-Igbo,” reads the heading of a post on Facebook.

Ehi means cow in the Igbo language, the major dialect in southeastern Nigeria. Ehi-Igbo refers to the local cow breed in the region (archived here).

The post has been shared more than 360 times since it was published on March 8, 2025.

It further claims that the Abia state government banned cow imports from the north after reports that the animals were injected with harmful substances that can cause long-term health issues.

“Governor Otti described this as a ‘slow extermination’ of the Igbo people by certain elements from the north,” the post concludes, suggesting that the governor announced the ban in a speech.

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on March 12, 2025

Nigerian officials are promoting a plan to give traditionally nomadic Fulani herders land on dozens of designated reservations, arguing this would stop confrontation by preventing cattle from wandering onto farms and settlements.

Competition for natural resources like fertile land and water between nomadic herders and farmers has resulted in conflicts that have claimed thousands of lives and caused displacement in several communities (archived here).

States in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, such as Benue, Plateau, and Nasarawa, were among the worst hit by the crisis from 2010-2020 (archived here).

In February 2021, Okezie Ikpeazu, who was the governor of Abia state at the time, said the state paid compensation for each cow killed in clashes between farmers and herders (archived here).

However, there is no ban in Abia on cows from the north.

Notorious website

The post contains the link to a website called Daily Excessive, which has been identified as sharing false information on multiple occasions (archived here and here).

In December 2024, Yahaya Bello, the former governor of Kogi state in Nigeria’s north-central region, threatened to sue the platform's owners for publishing false information about him (archived here).

The post claiming that the Abia state governor banned cow imports was published on the website’s Facebook page on March 6, 2025 – two days before it circulated elsewhere.

AFP Fact Check found no evidence of the governor making any speech or statement announcing a ban, nor did any credible local media outlet report on a ban. 

Ukoha Njoku, the chief press secretary to the Abia state governor, told AFP Fact Check that the claim is false.

He also said nomadic herders are allowed to graze their cattle in the state.

"There was an anti-grazing law already passed by the Abia State House of Assembly during the immediate past administration. However, the anti-grazing is yet to be enforced until now as the state is still exploring the introduction of ranching as an alternative before the enforcement of the existing anti-grazing law," he said.

Read more of AFP Fact Check’s debunks about claims circulating in Nigeria here.