‘Act decisively to end atrocities of Fulani herdsmen’

Farmers in the Agogo portion of the Afram Plains have renewed their plea for security protection against the atrocities of Fulani herdsmen and their cattle.

They said in spite of a court order for the eviction of the Nomads, they continued to graze their animals in the area, destroying farms, water bodies and threatening the lives of the people with impunity.

Nana Kwame Nti, Krontihene of Agogo, expressed the concerns of the people at a meeting with the Ashanti Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Kofi Boakye, at Agogo.

He warned that the situation could explode, if the authorities failed to act.

He said the herdsmen had been carrying powerful and deadly weapons and were, therefore, dangerous.

The top police officer had gone to the area to help temper the rising tension between the local people and the herdsmen.

Nana Nti catalogued the indignities and pain forced on them by the herdsmen over the years as having their women rapped, gunning down of their men, having their monies and other valuables robbed, having their farms destroyed and sharing their sources of drinking water with animals.

He said the situation would have to change to restore sanity.

An emotionally charged farmer, who gave her name as Maa Adwoa, recounted to the Police Commander, the loss of her 20 acre plantain farm to the destructive activities of the Fulani.

She said her bankers would be chasing her in March this year to pay back the loan, which she took to establish the farm.

DCOP Boakye urged them to remain calm and avoid taking the law into their own hands.

He gave the assurance that everything would be done to provide them with adequate security cover.

If that would require sending police reinforcement, they would do exactly that, he assured.

DCOP Boakye also met some of the cattle owners, who said the chiefs and landowners should share the blame for what was happening.

They stated that the landowners had given out parcels of land to the alien herdsmen to graze their animals, thereby encouraging their stay there.