V/R: Sokode residents attack policemen over ‘herdsmen protection’

Some angry locals at Sokode-Ando in the Ho municipality of the Volta region Wednesday reportedly laid ambush and attacked a team of policemen who had gone to the area to quell tensions between them and some nomadic herdsmen, who they accuse of murdering a man on his farm last week.

According to Starr News Sources, the locals who reported the case to the police on Monday, later decided to flush out the herdsmen from the area after they discovered that another person had been killed.

However, an attempt by the Police to evacuate the nomads from the area to avert any clashes infuriated a local vigilante group which laid ambush on the officers and beat them to pulp, with two sustaining servers injuries.

The locals also reportedly seized three rifles from the police in the scuffle, and vandalised a police vehicle in the process.

They also mounted road blocks on a section of the Ho-Accra road to prevent any herdsman from leaving the area.

It took the intervention of a police reinforcement team from the regional command to restore order and also clear the road for traffic flow.

A mediation team comprising of the assembly member for the area and some opinion leaders have since been negotiating with the locals to ceasefire and also hand over the seized riffles to the police.